atari
CN 1403
y ThV Information Highway?
Circling NSA and the KGB
The little Engine That Could'Ve
ST Graphics Cards: .
Crazy Dots II vs Cyrel Sunrise
Cubase Score
. TextPfo Printing Tips -
Two Computers - One Monitor
Ordering Info: Visa, MasterCard or COD. No personal Checks
No surcharge for credit cards. COD add $4.50. Ohio add 5.5% tax.
No cash refunds - Return products for Credit or Replacement only.
Shipping Info: Free shipping on Orders over $100, in the
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International: Actual freight
P.O. Box 811 - Elyria, Ohio 44036
800-535-4290
Tech Info & Fax 216-926-3842
FALCON 68030- CALL!!
STe SIMMS lmeg each - $45
SMI47 14” $199
SC1224 $250
SC1435 14” color $349
Straight Fax 2.0 - $84.91 1
(required software for all listed Fax modems) :
Supra 2400 baud - $69.95
Supra 2400 w/9600Fax $134.97 j
Supra 14.4/14.4 w/fax LC $189 :
Supra 14.4/14.4 w/fax v32 $223 i
D&P 14.4 DM Modem $159 j
(D&P 14.4 DM fax-modem
upgrade $39.95)
MtrnmylWpqmtfha
Z-Ram/Mega II- (closeout) -$60
Simms chips lmeg & 4meg- I
Call!?
JRI Board (uses simms)- $99 I
XtraRAM ST Deluxe- $79 |
XtraRAM+8(old mega’s)- $119.41 f
XtraRAM+8( mega STE)- $119.41 §
Ram-Gizmo (Falcon i4Meg) -$83.43 §
Master 3S -
Master 5S (5.25") •
Colorburst Scanner (falcon) $509
Colorburst w/o OCR Jr $469
Drive Master - $32
Drive cable 6 ft $13.95
Hand Scanner(Migr»ph)- $269
Hand Scanner(Go!den lm»ge)$215
HP Deskjet 500 printer - Call!! f
HP Deskjet 500Cprinter- Call!! i
ICD Adscsi Plus - $93.77
ICD Adscsi (no clock) - $83.77
ICD Link host adaptor- $99
50 pin SCSI cable- $10
ICD Cleanup ST- $25
Mega Touch Springs - $9.49
Mouse Master - $26
Mouse mats - $5
Mouse (Opto-Mechanical) - $37
Mouse (Optical)- $75
Mouse (Cordless)- $50
Mousestick (Gravis)- $65
Falcon Speed (286) $262.91 f
Printer or Modem Cable - $7
Star Printers all models Call!!
Epson Action Printers - Call!!
Panasonic printers Call!!
TEC (Tos extension card)- $141.97
Trackball(Kraft)- $59
Arabesque Pro $154
Atari Works $95.40 |
Buttonzbasic $37.41 f
Buttonz Awari $33.97 I
Cardfile4 $30.91
ConvectorPro $115
Data Rescue $48.41 :
Diamond Edge $53.41
EpSalot $31.91
FirstGraph $63.97
Fontfarm $30.91
Grammar Expert $44.91 f
GramSlam $29.57
Harlekin 2 $87.15 S
HiSoft Basic 2 $110.93 |
Home Accounts 2 $88.62 1
Invision Elite $108.91 1
Logo Library $29.91 |
Marcel Word Processor $41.91 |
Mega Check 2 $31.91 i
Multi-TOS $47.96 |
MultiWriter $61.91
NeoDesk 3 $53.85 I
Publisher 2ST $177.68 f
Qwikforms $30.91
Redacteur 3 $159,321
Silhouette Colortrace $92.41 1
SpeedoGdos $51.95 |
Spelling Sentry $41.95 J
Stalk the Market _ _
Style $26.82
Templicity $2957
That’s Write 2 $194.91
TruePaint $62.87
If you don’t see what you want
please call , we handle over
2000 + software titles
Breakthru
$273.26
Breakthru Plus
$313.91
Digitape (8track)
$249.43
Dog Fight
$55.48 I
Geneva
$53.89
Image Copy 2
$33.91
NVDI2.5
$93.11
Paper Plates
$31.91
Sample Series Collect.
$63.91
Sequencer One
$32.41
Sequencer One Plus
$134.41
Straight Fax 2.0
$84.91
The Hit Kit
$39.91
The Patrician
$46.43
Zool
$43.15
mU VtoBsffSH
Complete Assembled Hard Drive Systems, Atari ST systems have choice of ICD Adscsi Plus, ICD Adscsi, or ICD LINK host
Adaptors. Falcon Systems come complete with SCSI Cable to hook up to the ATARI Falcon 68030 Computers.
MANUF.
QUANTUM
QUANTUM
QUANTUM
MAXTOR
QUANTUM
MAXTOR
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MODEL
ELS85
ELS 127
ELS 170
7213S
LPS240
7245S
7345S
LPS525
MXT-540SL
PD700
PD 1050
PD 1225
MXT-1240S
SIZE
85
127
170
213
240
245
345
525
540
700
1.05 GB
1.2 GB
1.24Gig
SPEED
17 Msec
17 Msec
17 Msec
15 Msec
16 Msec
15 Msec
14 Msec
10 Msec
9 Msec
10 Msec
10 Msec
10 Msec
9 Msec
213/7245/7345 2 Year Warranty 540/1240 3
85 to 525 Meg- 2 Year Warranty 1050 & 1225
ESSITE
SYQUEST
SYQUEST
SYQUEST
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21Meg
44M
88M
88/44
105Meg
21M Floptical Disks 424
FLOPTICAL
REMOVABLE
REMOVABLE
REMOVABLE
REMOVABLE
SYQUEST CARTS
CACHE PRICE
32K $177
32K $205
32K $227
64K $254
256K $317
64K $285
64K $350
512K $800
256K $889
512K $938
512K $1124
512K $1251
256K $1320
1 Year Warranty
5 Year Warranty
ft
w/ldisk - $292
$329
$390
$480
$299
72 884115 105465
HD SIZE
85
127
170
213
240
245
345
525
540
700
1.05G
1.2G
1.24G
CASE A
$379
$408
$430
$457
$520
$488
$553
$1003
$1092
$1131
$1327
$1454
$1523
CASED
$359
$388
$410
$437
$500
$468
$533
$983
$1072
$1111
$1307
$1434
$1503
FALCON
$319
$348
$370
$397
$460
$428
$493
$943
$1032
$1071
$1267
$1394
$1463
21 MEG $495
44MEG $563
88MEG $667
88/44MEG $757
105Meg $600
MUR IV
N/A
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Case B: our shoebox Case $89
Musical
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Software Catalog .... //•
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Atari's top-of-the-line TT030 is the ideal
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Additional game cartridges & peripherals
also available. Call or write for pricing.
Move up to Cubase, the ultimate Sequencing
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as low OS... • 799.
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We will meet or beat all legitimate nationally
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Computer
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Westgate Shopping Center
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PUBLISHER: Joe Waters, 122 N Johnson
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&1 Txm-z - Afnumi
All files on this disk are compressed in ZIP format.
Alice, Another Little C Editor, V1.42, is a GEM— based text editor for ATARI ST.
ColorBurst III, a full-featured paint program that is SpeedoDOS, Multitos compatiable.
The Clipboard Setter, accessory allows you to redirect the system clipboard to the drive
of your choice.
The Atari Glossary, emphasizes the jargon that is specific to Atari, TOS and GEM.
HD Free - A CPX that shows a graphical representations of your free hard drive space and
Memory.
Maus-Window, v.1.25 of this .acc/.prg allows you to "top" a window (bring it to the top of
all the other open windows and activate it) simply by moving your mouse pointer over it.
MemWatch, graphically displays memoiy usage in your system so you can spot memory
fragmentation when it occurs.
Mouse-Ka-Mania II, lets you replace any of the standard mouse cursors with fun and
flashy animations; more than 140 animated and single— frame mouse cursors are supplied in
the package.
QSort, vl.O rapidly sorts up to 65535 ASCII lines.
Searcher, search your floppy or hard drive and, when you find the files you want, you can
delete them, change their attributes, hide them and more.
ST — Tools, unfragment your hard drive, edit sectors and files, etc.
Whatis, v6.6 identifies over 160 different file types — ARC, LZH, ZIP, ZOO, pics,
accessories, animations, etc.
Wing Lord, a great ’Joust’ done with a few new twists added to give the game a new feel.
envoTtc-i ~ ?tovicA.m4
All files on this disk are compressed in ZIP format.
Ascii-View, v3.75, Text viewing program developed to replace the [Show] -[Print] -[Can¬
cel] feature of the standard ST Desktop.
Clock, Clock dispalys an analog clock on you monitor.
Grammarian, Vl.4.0. Examine text files for word usage, spelling, and grammatical rules.
Magic Spell, V2.1. Shareware spelling game/program for young and old alike.
MasterBrowse v3.5, The *BEST* ST/STe/TT/Falcon/MultiTOS Text File Viewer!
Recipe Box, The Recipe Box provides easy entry, storage, and access to all your favorite
recipes. Shareware.
Sleuth, Colorful arcade action fun game created with M.A.G.E.
Teddy-TERM v2.10, a fully functional communications terminal that support many of the
external protocol programs available as well as ANSI/VT100 and VT52 terminal emulations.
&K VOTH^O - *?e6njc€evuf
This disk includes the latest versions of two of the most popular compression programs
for the Atari. The files are not compressed and are ready to use. One or both of these pro¬
grams will be needed to uncompress files on other disks in the CN library.
ST ZIP v2A (c) Vincent Pomey 1990—1993. STZip allows you to compress and decom¬
press files, i.e. to reduce their lengths. You saves space on your disks and reduce the transmis¬
sion time if you send the files by modem. It also allows you to group several files in one sin¬
gle file, whose extension in general is ZIP. STZip uses files that are compatible with PKZip
2.04 on the IBM PC, and the Unix Info-Zip programs Zip 1.9/Unzip 5.0.
CZH v2.99. Latest version of LHARC from Christian Grunenberg now includes an
English language shell that takes advantage of all LHARC features and allows you to com¬
press and uncompress files with ease. Includes an English manual plus documentation.
Page 2
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
WCURRENTlNOTESm
Table of Contents
Vol. 14, No. 3: April 1994
Regular Features:
8-Bit Tidbits, Rick Reaser 34
“Latest News for the Classic Atari”
Atari in the STicks, Henry van Eyken 50
“The Little Engine That Could’ve”
Atari Myths & Mysteries, David Troy 14
“The Information Highway: Is This the
Correct Paradigm?”
Atari Works, Michael ‘Papa’ Hebert 43
“Page Setup, Labels and Graphics”
GEnie Notes, Lou Rocha 27
Around GEnie: The FAX RT, by Lou Rocha
RTC Highlights, by Brian Harvey
Cat’s Eye View, by Brian Harvey
ST Library, by Gordon Meyer
Hot Tbpics, by Terry Quinn
Running Out of Ram, David Barkin 22
“Graphic Cards: Crazy Dots II and Cyrel
Sunrise”
ST Tbolbox, J. Andrzej Wrotniak 18
“Spies, Morons and the Rest of Us:
How to Run Circles Around KGB and NSA”
STatus Atari, Paul Lefebvre
“Powerful Alternatives?”
12
Woods Music, Gary Woods
“Cubase Score”
46
Departments
Letters to the Editor
4
News and Announcements
7
List of Advertisers
64
Classified Ads
64
The Cover: With your Atari and a modem,
you, too, can journey on down the information
highway. Photo (c) 1993 by M. Heininger.
Special Features:
TtextPRO: Part 7 - Printing Tips
by Frank Walters 38
Rebuilding the TAF 8-Bit Library
by Robert Boardman 41
Geneva - Part 2
Review by Jim Fouch 56
Stalk the Market vs Stock Smart
Review by 7 ferry Quinn 58
Using TWo Computers and One Monitor
By Alvin Riesbeck 60
Squish II
Review by Paul Lefebvre 62
Time to Renew?
Take a peek at your mailing label. If you see the
expression 9404 on the first line, then your subscrip¬
tion expires in 1994, month 4, i.e. this April issue is
the last one in your current subscription. If you see
9405, your subscription will expire in May. Please
RENEW as soon as possible to avoid missing any is¬
sues of CN. You can renew using your MC or VISA
card by calling (703) 450^1761 (evenings). Many
thanks for your continued support!
Moving?
Don’t forget to send in a CHANGE OF ADDRESS
notice if you are moving. Current Notes is distributed
via 2nd class U.S. mail. The post office does not for¬
ward 2nd class publications; they throw them away!
CORRECTION:
In the March "Running Out of Ram” column,
David Barkin said that Lexicor had suggested that he
plug his “board into the computer while it was
booting.” In fact, the advice, and what he actually did
do, was to plug his “ monitor into the board . . .” In
any case, the results were as he reported. David
thought CN had goofed, but, in fact, he discovered his
original copy had the mistake in it and he apologizes
for the error.
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 3
. . . 1 v
<detten& fo ScUtox,
AtariWorks Too Big
Dear Joe:
I applaud Current Notes’ decision to add a regular Atari-
Works tutorial to their pages. Too often last year it seemed as
if your columnists wanted to talk about anything BUT the
Atari ST. It’s good to see some meat-and-potatoes articles
about getting the most from one’s machine.
AtariWorks does sound like a great program. Of course,
I’ll never know because I have only a one meg machine and,
by all accounts, AtariWorks takes at least two megs to run. I
have to question the wisdom of releasing a program which, by
its very size, excludes the vast majority of Atari owners who,
like myself, have never upgraded their RAM from the original
512 or 1024K configuration, especially when it doesn’t have to
be that way.
AtariWorks itself only runts to a half meg in size, and
looks as if features were intentionally left off so that it would
remain small enough to run on a 520ST. Then they went and
added SpeedoGDOS to it. While SpeedoGDOS , by all re¬
ports, is everything GDOS was supposed to be, it gobbles up
a whole megabyte of RAM to install. GDOS was never that
bad. Even Pagestream , which also uses scalable vector fonts,
doesn’t consume that much RAM. It can be run on a one meg
machine!
I can’t imagine that it would take all that much effort to
add a module that would enable Atari Works to use system and
printer fonts in place of SpeedoGDOS. Making AtariWorks
run on a one meg system (and, optimistically, a half-meg sys¬
tem as well) would add tremendously to its value.
Brian Earl Brown
Detroit, MI
A Matter of Ethics
Dear Joe,
The Atari “Industry” seems to be fading and blinking out
more and more each day. Much of the Atari user’s demise and
disappointment, the vendors of the all-important Atari com¬
patible “stuff,” seem also to be unable to deliver at a time
when they should be in a desperate need to win more of the
diminishing market share. This isn’t, however, just about mar¬
ket share. It’s really about ethics. You know, that old fash¬
ioned word that our parents used to teach us that meant hon¬
or, reliability, word/bond, etc. This practice, of course, has
been discontinued due to a seeming lack of interest in the con¬
cept.
As a small business owner/manager/ worker in a two per¬
son (my wife and I) printing business, I can vouch for the
undisputable FACT that the customer is always 100% correct.
Of course, we know that isn’t true literally, but if you want to
stay in business, thus feed your family, etc., you must do ex¬
actly what the customer asks and deliver it EXACTLY when
they ask for it. They are not concerned about your problems.
If I have the flu, I come to work and work as if I didn’t. If
there is a major ice storm (we live 20 miles away), we some¬
how make it to work on time. In other words, there is NO ex¬
cuse for non-performance. It really doesn’t matter if you died,
the customer would still be there at the pre-determined dead¬
line asking for their “stuff.”
And they get it. And with a smile, too. Because once you
open your mouth about a mutually agreeable delivery time,
that is it. If everyone went to work with this degree of dedica¬
tion to deliver exactly what they say, we would have many
fewer social problems in this country. . . .
I’m upset with folks like Jim Allen who promised deliv¬
ery on the Tiny Turbo board last June and still hasn’t deliv¬
ered, even though he has had everyone’s money since about
May, 1992. When the UPS or FEC-EX systems can have any¬
thing you want delivered to your door on the same day you or¬
der it, I want to know exactly what these people are thinking
when they promise a specific delivery date then make excuses
day after day for going on a year? Isn’t that fraud? Can’t that
be prosecuted?
Before I learned how to print, I was an electronic tech. I
understand the engineering problems can be unrelenting, and
that sometimes when all you have is YOU to rely on, things
get frustrating and almost impossible to overcome. Again, that
is NOT the customer’s problem. We all assumed all of that
was behind these people when they made the promise. When
I keep hearing, “Two weeks, the manual is at the printers,”
over and over again, I can’t describe the anger and frustration
I feel. Am I alone?
Aside from the radical thought of prosecution, . . .
doesn’t it occur to anyone that it just plain isn’t right (ethi¬
cal)?? One of the best guys in the Atari high tech aftermarket
business, Dave Small, is also very guilty of this. Just read the
messages on GEnie in the Gadgets SIG. The common, “It’s
due any day now,” or “That’s our next project,” or whatever
excuse that would actually excuse them from delivering prom¬
ised goods on time, is everywhere! We all know Atari does
this all the time. (Where’s the Falcon?)
But just because it’s common, doesn’t mean it’s right; and
if we are to have an Atari market in this desperate time of di¬
minishing support, doesn’t it make sense to gear up instead of
gear down? Lead, Follow or Get the H _ out of the way! This
concept of making excuses has got to stop. Once something is
promised, I for one, expect programmers, engineers, etc. to
work all the way around the clock, if necessary, to deliver
promised goods. Then, if they don’t make it, they can bow be¬
fore their customers and BEG for forgiveness. Maybe we will
forgive; then again, maybe we will go someplace else that is
more reliable. In the mean time, before I go out and buy a TT,
does anyone have a suggestion on where to get a 030 system
with at least virtual memory expansion for my Mega STe right
NOW??
Dave Krehbiel
McPherson, KS
Page 4
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
Making Life Easier
Dear Mr. Waters
... I am not one of those who intends to give up using
Atari equipment.
I use MS-DOS clones and Apple Macintosh computers at
work, which is fine by me, because I get paid by the hour. I
also used a Sun Workstation, with a Motorola 680x0 proces¬
sor inside, on a Unix mainframe system, and found it a little
slow, but likeable enough. One would expect an operating
system made up of two to three million lines of C code to be
at least as competent as one in 192K of ROM.
I own a DOS machine, which is stacked in a pile in the
corner of my bedroom. I bought it because I was taking a
course in C, as part of a masters program in computer sci¬
ence, and needed to use the same compiler as everybody else.
Having a lower-paying job now, I dropped that class, honor
student or not, and put that computer away.
In my not-humble opinion (IMNHO), a computer is sup¬
posed to make my life easier, at least when I’m not getting
paid for my time.
Part of what I want out of a computer is that it save my
time, and present me with the least inconvenient way of doing
things. For those things, I prefer Atari.
And I do use my 1040STf pretty heavily. It is on its third
floppy disk drive, and my 24-pin printer is on its third head.
The dying gasps of my second floppy drive marked the
only time I almost lost data, even though I have been format¬
ting disks 10 sectors skewed for years.
IMNHO, the layers of non-woven cloth inside a 3 1/2 inch
floppy are intended to provide damping, to keep the disk from
flopping around too much, and bouncing across the heads.
The failed ones I have taken apart have worn through to a
high spot in the plastic and send the disk whipping around.
That makes a growling sound. Before it gets that bad, the
sound from the drive is a tick-tick. What happened was that
the drive spindle bearing, running out of oil, provided enough
drag to keep worn-out floppies from acting up, until one day it
got too bad, and suddenly I had quite a few disks to redo, with
a drive that could only keep up to speed for long enough to
copy short files. I presume that this has happened to other
people, who think that the formatting did it.
The printer’s third head is made up of parts of the first
two. The first one died of a broken flexible cable circuit. The
second one died when drive transistors on the mother board
went up with a plume of smoke and a flash of light, and in do¬
ing so, burned out four pin-driver coils, and took out the
printer’s custom logic array chip. Those got replaced, and I
learned how to work with surface mount components.
Urethane adhesives, sold as GOOP or Shoe Goo, trade¬
marks of whoever sells the stuff, are good reinforcements for
a patch on a broken flex cable conductor, and masking tape is
what to use to keep 23 pins firmly in place while replacing
the 24th. My experience is that if you don’t tape things down,
it will be about 16 hours before you have it back together.
This has nothing to do with the fact that I have been
re-inking printer ribbons for so long that the foamy ink reser¬
voir rollers have turned to something that does not bounce
back, and does not hold ink, but are still basically round.
My monitor (SM124) is on its third flyback transformer.
The second one probably failed early because I damaged it
trying to get the shield can from the first one over its replace¬
ment. My best guess so far is that the flyback has an IBM
number, three numbers removed from one in replacement part
catalogs. I got a local repair place to order the transformer,
the vertical output transistor and the nonpolarized resonating
capacitor, and installed them. Those, I think, came from Best,
who will sell only to service operations. The cost was reason¬
able, considering.
In other words, I am not just a casual user of computers,
and have a reason for my preferences.
James P. DeClercq
Roseville, MI
Ultima VI Game for Atari
To Joe Waters
I’m looking for the game Ultima VI (6) for the Atari ST
1040. I called all your advertisers in the November 1993 issue
of Current Notes. They all say that their distributor does not
carry it. I called Origins also and came to a dead end there,
also.
Somebody must have a copy of Ultima VI. Do you have
any suggestions as to where I might get access to Ultima VI? I
loved playing Ultima I, II, Illy IV, and V. Even though I’m
very slow at completing these games, I would like to at least
finish the series up to Ultima VI, since the first six games
were made for the Atari.
I appreciate any help you can give me.
My son, Chris Hinds, insisted that I renew my subscrip¬
tion to Current Notes , in order to “support” Atari, but now
that I do this, I find there is no support for Atari machines. I
can’t find the games I want, and the local computer service
center I was using only services “IBM” now.
Pat Hinds
Orono, ME
Topic Suggestions
Dear Joe:
I see that my subscription is due for renewal, so here’s my
check for $27 for another year of Current Notes.
I still value CN as an outstanding Atari magazine and re¬
source.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much happening
with Atari computers to report on except a lot of Jaguar hoop¬
la. I hope it works, and enables and inspires Atari to pump
new energy, bucks, creativity, production, and market support
into non-obsolete and appropriately priced computers.
Here are some article topics that I’d like to see in the next
six months:
- Reviews of the European accelerators for the STs, Megas,
and Falcons.
— How to adapt a decent $100-$200 PC graphics card to the
STs (not just Megas with the Megabus, but all STs) and TTs
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 5
too— and the magical availability of a good driver for the
adaption.
- Whatever happened to Pixel Wonder , the alternative over¬
scan type of product for the STs and Megas from Maxon of
Germany?
- How to get AtariWorks to bypass the SpeedoGDOS fonts
and use the fonts that are built into my printer. (Graph¬
ics-mode printing of Speedo fonts is too darn slow— at least
with my old Panasonic 1092I-II 9-pin printer.)
- Why Atari now must sell the new production of TTs with
8 MB of RAM and a big hard drive for well under $1000 to be
competitive at today’s PC and Macintosh prices (probably fol¬
lowed by another article about why Atari will do no such
thing.)
- How to adapt low-cost surplus 19-inch to 24-inch mono¬
chrome ECL high-resolution monitors for use with the Mega,
the STs, and the TTs. Maybe the Falcons, too.
- Reviews of some of the new inkjet/bubblejet printers by
Epson, Canon, etc. and some of the low-cost laser printers
(Sharp, HP, Epson, Panasonic, etc.)
Thank you and continued good luck keeping the maga¬
zine timely, relevant, and solvent.
Donald J. Wilhelm
Menlo Park, CA
P.S. Also an update article on 1) the SST (Gadgets) and 2) Jim
Allen’s 68030 accelerators; and why can’t somebody do it bet¬
ter (cheaper and more available) than these guys— although I
note that accelerators for the various Macintosh computers are
just as pricey. Yep — the old production volume-demand is¬
sue-in part.
Dave & Dave Tip the Scales
Dear Joe,
I just wanted to thank you and Joyce for all your work on
such a fine magazine. When STart magazine went belly-up I
really had no clue where to look to find a publication that
could fill the gaping hole. I wanted a magazine that would
give me more than just “news and reviews.”
As it happened, I was given a few back issues of Atari
User , one of which (Aug. ’91) contained a review of other
Atari-oriented publications, by someone I knew at Phillips
Music & Sound in Phillipsburg, NJ. The place must be good
luck for me because, if I’m not mistaken, I believe I only be¬
came aware of the existence of the ST line of computers when
I saw them on display at Dave Phillips. After reading the
glowing review of Current Notes in AU, I believe I wrote to
you to confirm the subscription information given in the arti¬
cle. You subsequently sent me a free trial copy. I was happy to
see that the praise was justified. I found the candor refresh¬
ing. I’ll admit it’s taken a bit of getting used to! At the time,
my main source of information on the world of Atari comput¬
ing was the “Official Atari Journal,” which I had subscribed
to for some time. I had become less and less enthusiastic
about the idea of renewing my subscription as the delays be¬
tween issues grew. With the big shake-up in the “Journal’s”
editorial staff, I knew it was time to “explore” my options.
I must admit that I looked into a few other magazines be¬
fore finally settling on CN. They were all fine publications
and worthy of consideration. In the final analysis, it was the
little differences that tipped the scales. Or should that be the
Small differences? I had become quite fond of Dave Small’s
columns during his days at STart. (Only Dave could have
made reading about Unix so enjoyable!) Dave’s presence at
CN combined with that of Dave Troy, the “Director of Propa¬
ganda” at Toad Computers. I knew I had found a home.
Before I close, I’d just like to praise the gang at Toad. Just
knowing that they exist takes away a lot of the anxiety of own¬
ing an Atari computer. Jennifer’s friendly, helpful voice at the
other end of the phone is enough to make you want to buy
more stuff just to keep them in business. Besides, their cata¬
logs are almost as fun to read as CN\ . . .almost.
Paul Doerwang
Washington, NJ
P.S. The game, “Thurg’n’Murg” on PD disk #852 is a great
addition to your PD library. “Droid” (on #855) looks good,
too. Unfortunately, my drive light won’t go off when I play it.
I don’t know if this is more cold-related damage or a bug that
affects Megas STs, or something else altogether. Has anyone
else reported any similar problems?
NOVA Card Notes
To: Joe Waters, Current Notes
In your February issue, David Barkin said he was still un¬
able to get his Nova color card working. If he is still having
problems, or just wants to compare notes, I am running a TT
with the Nova card and would be glad to go over things with
him. A friend is using the card with his Mega STe. We both
have settled on 1024x768x256 as our boot-up setting.
I can’t get Calamus SL to show graphics past 256 colors,
but I understand there is an Auto folder patch for that.
Pagestream is happy up to 2546 colors, but won’t let me set
palette colors in 256 color mode and only uses the 1st 16 col¬
ors anyway. Retouche Pro CD * goes up to 32,000 colors. In
either 256 or 32k colors, the outline color for blocks is virtu¬
ally invisible. GEMView seems to work in any rez/color set¬
ting. The only program to work correctly at 16M colors. Flash
152 works in 640x400x2. Touch-Up works in some 2 colors
rez s and 640x480x16. ImageCopy II and Style don’t show pic¬
tures with board. ( ImageCopyll also doesn’t show pics with a
friend’s Cyrel board. He said this is normal with CodeHead
products.)
Hope this is of use.
Jim Hood
Concord, CA
P.S. It was David’s review that finally convinced me to get Re¬
touche.
[You will have noticed in the March issue that David has sur¬
rendered his Nova card, but your information may be helpful
to others who have the card or our considering purchasing it.
Thanks. -JW]
Page 6
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
• GOODNEH^
Atari Industry
News and Announcements
Processor Direct Magazine Update
Two Worlds Publishing is happy to announce that the
first issue of Processor Direct Magazine is fast approaching,
and we are now looking for dealers interested in selling the
magazine in their stores.
The first issue is expected to be mailed to dealers and
subscribers in the month of February (1994). All of our sub¬
scribers were mailed a notice regarding this on Janu¬
ary 18, 1994. If you have subscribed and did not get one, or
have moved since sending in your subscription, please contact
us so we can update our records and make sure you get the
first issue as quickly as possible.
Subscriptions to Processor Direct are still $25.00 ($32.00
in Canada) for 12 issues, and are payable by check or money
order made out to Two Worlds Publishing, paid in US funds
drawn from a bank in United States or Canada. Individual is¬
sues can be purchased directly from TWP for $3.50 ($4.00
Canada) each, paid in the same manner as subscriptions.
[Two Worlds Publishing, Inc., 3837 Northdale Blvd.
#225, Tampa, FL 33624. GEnie: P-DIRECT; Internet: p-di-
rect@genie.geis.com]
IAAD Election Results
November 11, 1993: The Independent Association of Atari
Developers (IAAD) is pleased to announce the results of the
annual election of our Board of Directors. Newly-elected
Board members include Greg Kopchak of It’s All Relative,
David “Dr. Bob” Parks of Dr. Bobware, and Charles Smeton
of NewSTar Technology Management. Nathan Potechin of
DMC was reelected to a fifth term, and Dorothy Brumleve of
D.A. Brumleve was reelected to the Board and to the Presi¬
dency by a unanimous vote.
The IAAD is an organization of third-party commercial
hardware and software developers supporting the Atari ST
family of computers, including the ST/STe, TT030, and Fal-
con030 series. An IAAD Membership Directory, including
product listings, is updated regularly and made available on
major online services.
Commercial developers are encouraged to apply for
membership by sending GEMail to the PERMIT$ address on
GEnie. Developers, or individuals who would like to contact
Atari develoeprs, may contact D.A. Brumleve at (217)
337-1937, DABRUMLEVE on GEnie or Delphi, dabrum-
leve@genie.geis.con ...» the Internet, or 76004,3655 on Com¬
puServe.
Mountain Software Announces New Prices
Mountain Software has lowered the retail price of four of
their products (Easy Base , $10; Easy Go, $15; Mountain
QWK, $30; and The Recipe Box , $35), They are also now pro¬
viding free shipping on all direct orders. (Residents of Wash¬
ington state, please add 7.6% sales tax!)
For more information, or to place an order, write to:
Mountain Software, 6911 NE Livingston Road, Camas, Wash¬
ington 98607. GEnie E-mail to: A.WATSON6. (Make check
or money order payable to: Mountain Software.)
Connecticut Atarifest ’94 Announced
10am-5pm, Saturday, August 27;
10am-4pm, Sunday, August 28
ACT Atari Group is running another major Northeast
computer event. Last year’s successful move to the Windsor
Court Hotel means only one thing: Encore ! CT Fest ’94 is just
as convenient to reach as ever — only two hours from Boston
or New York. The hotel has excellent room rates, easy access
from Interstates 91, 95, 90, 84, and 80 and plentiful parking.
It is located just one mile from Bradley International Airport
(free shuttle service for hotel guests). Join us for an informal,
low cost, dinner Saturday night, and mix with old friends.
What about the Jaguar? Come on out and get (64)BIT!
We’ll have the largest Jaguar competition in New England,
with the latest games and gear.
We’ll have our Lynx Competition, with multiple Com-
lynxed competitions underway at all times, the Portfolio Cor¬
ner, staffed with industry experts, an endless stream of door
prizes and seminars in abundance (in the past we’ve had ev¬
eryone’s favorite Atari Corp. personality— -Director of Com¬
munications Bob Brodie, John Eidsvoog of Codehead, Jeff
Naideau from Barefoot, Dave Troy of Toad Computers, Joe
Mirando & Dana Jacobson from ST Report and many others).
Stay tuned for this year’s list of speakers.
All in all, we hope to have the best Northeast show yet,
and we look forward to your participation. Make your plans
now for the most exciting Atari Weekend this summer!
The Windsor Court will be offering special rates for CAF
’94 attendees, call them at 203-623-9811 (Fax 9808).
For further information, call Angela or Brian Gockley at
203-332-1721. E-mail can be directed to 75300,2514 on CIS.
Hcatseekcr Allows SLM Laser Printers to
Connect to Falcon030
Specification: Interface between Falcon030 and SLM
804 or SLM 05.
Supplier : O.M., Berlin, Raschdorffstrasse 99, 13409 Ber¬
lin, Germany
Phone: +49 / 30 492 4127
FAX: +49/30 491 93 67
If you’re calling the phone lines, please think about time
differences. Berlin’s in the Central European Time Zone
April 1994
Current Notes
(CET), which is Greenwich Mean Time plus one hour. FAX
lines are open 24 hrs. a day.
Includes : Heatseeker interlace-hardware; GDOS-driver
software; Diablo printer-emulation; Drivers for 1st Word Plus
and similar Drivers for That’s Write, Composcriptc tc.; Instal¬
lation, setup and test software; FontGDOS; Special configura¬
tion CPX for the Diablo emulator; Documentation.
Price: 99 DM (currently $110)
Optional: SpeedoGDOS 4.2 package., Calamus / Cala¬
mus SL drivers.
Features: The hardware was designed to be very er¬
ror-tolerant. The problems you might have had using the old
“SLMC” controller when switching off the laser with the
computer turned on or booting with an offline laser no longer
exist. You can now turn the laser on and off whenever you
want. The hardware is very small and handy and does not
consume as much space as the SLMC-controller. Its current
size is 50mm xz 77mm x 13mm. The Heatseeker is easily in¬
stalled and can, as well, be easily removed with a single grip.
The software provides a maximum of compatibility, since
it is licensed original Atari software that was modified to con¬
trol the Heatseeker hardware. This allows you to run even
those programs that are relatively close to the hardware.
Programs printing plain ASCII text work, as well as
those printing bitmap rasters through the (unctions provided
by the Diablo emulator. Gnu-Ghostscript, Gnu’s postscript
emulator, runs without any problems.
The memory consumption is very low (at about 100 k).
Compatibility to GDOS-applications such as Xact, Prolist or
such is provided through a GDOS driver that can handle scal¬
able SpeedoGDOS vectorfonts as well as graphics.
The package includes special drivers for some programs,
such as That’s Write or Composcript. Easy-to-use CPXs al¬
low fast configuration of your system.
Marcel 2.2 Released as Shareware
Marcel Software is pleased to announce the release of its
latest word processor— Version 2.2. Marcel WP is now
SHAREWARE! This means you can make free copies of it for
yourself and your friends and, if you use Marcel regularly,
you pay only a $10 user registration fee. The fee also gets you
a free manual. (And you get a free bonus gift poster, while
supplies last.)
Marcel v2. 2 is packed with new features, like paragraph
sorting and line centering, PostScript output, revamped print
options, improved text insertion, to name but a few. Marcel
has always had a reputation for being easy to learn and use.
Now it’s even easier. And it even has a built-in screen saver!
Marcel v2.2 requires 512KB RAM (1MB recom¬
mended), 1 720KB diskette drive, and medium resolution
screen or better. It is MultiTOS-compatible and uses RTF for¬
mat for file exchange with Atari Works, MS-Word, etc.
The new version employs the same easy-to-use word
processing engine as the earlier version, but many improve¬
ments have been added: revamped print control for easier se¬
lection of page layouts, simpler paragraph indenting, para¬
graph sorting, keyboard commands for saving and printing,
line centering, easier text-to-function-key assignment, mul¬
ti-user switching, revamped help screens, and ready-made
templates for personal and business use, to name a few.
Marcel Word Processor made its debut early in 1993. It is
a GEM-based, user-friendly, low-fee shareware program for
anyone who likes to write. Marcel has loads of features, like
auto-reformatting, inslant-access writer’s note pad (saved with
file, but not printed or exported), easy accented-letter entry,
easy keyboard selection of clauses, sentences, and paragraphs,
word erase, and hundreds of other features, many not found in
other word processors.
Marcel can export in the following formats:
Rich-Text-Format (RTF), Ist-Word, and 7- and 8-bit ASCII.
With RTF, files can be exchanged with numerous programs in
the Macintosh and DOS worlds, and with such programs as
Calligrapher and the new AtariWorks from Atari Corp. 1st
Word format may be used with programs like Pagestream.
Marcel can read RTF, 1st Word, Word Writer, ST Writer,
WordPerfect 4.1, and several other file formats.
In addition to the new PbstScript support, Marcel WP
can print to Epson and compatibles, Atari Laser, HP DeskJet
and LaserJet. Users can create their own printer drivers by
editing a simple file.
Marcel runs on the full range of Atari 680x0 machines,
from 520ST all the way up to the Falcon. It is MultiTOS-com-
patible.
To get your registered version of Marcel (including
manual), send $10 to: Marcel Software, 318 Mendocino 051,
Santa Rosa, CA 95401.
Cecjay Software Specializes in Recycled Atari Products
CeeJay Software is a new company specializing in the
selling, trading and purchasing of used Atari software and
hardware. It was started by Carey and Janette Cates in 1993 as
an outlet for Atari users to recycle their idle pieces. With over
500 software titles, games and productivity programs, avail¬
able and a continually changing inventory of hardware, they
offer a varied selection for their customers.
As a long time Atari user himself, the Cee half of the
business, Carey, has a first-hand understanding of the prob¬
lems facing the average Atari enthusiast. The Jay portion,
Janette, while a relative newcomer to the Atari computers, has
found the platform to be very interesting and exciting. Both
are very willing to answer any questions you might have.
There is a listing of the available items uploaded on GE-
nie every two weeks in the ST Software Library.
[CeeJay Software, P.O. Box 1303, Mt. Vernon, IL 62864.
Phone: (618) 242-0405; Genie : C.CATES]
Texas Atari Festival Announced
S.A.L.S.A. (ST Atari League of San Antonio) invites you
and your friends to join us at the Texas Atari Festival ’94
Computer Show! This amazing amalgamation of technology
and wonder will take place June 4th and 5th from 10am to
5pm on the campus of St. Mary’s University.
Page 8
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
This is a fantastic chance to see the newest software and
hardware in the world of Atari as well a great excuse to come
to San Antonio and take a little weekend vacation!
S.A.L.S.A. is targeting the general public, not just Atari
or other computer users. Because of this we want to show off
the multitude of things that can be done with computers and
Atari computers specifically. That is why we are asking users
and user groups who attend to bring some of their vast knowl¬
edge and experience and share it with us. If there is a program
or area of computing that you have expertise in, we’d love to
have you or your user group do a one-time demonstration.
This is the best way to help others learn what you’ve learned
as well as a great way to draw someone into our world of
Atari. If you’d like to come spread your knowledge around,
please let me know ASAP. We are beginning the schedule of
events and the sooner we hear from you the better.
One other request for help from you: We are working
from a small list of user groups and developers/vendors. If you
know of anyone who would be interested in attending TAF ’94
or might like to display their products/services at the show
please pass this information along to them. We appreciate
your support!!
There are a limited number of rooms available for lodg¬
ing on the St. Mary’s campus. One night single occupancy is
$20. One night double occupancy is $16 per person. Now
these rooms aren’t fancy but they are CHEAP and only a short
walk from the show building. We need to have your reserva¬
tions AND your money by May 25th. Also admission will be
$3.50 at the door but each ticket will be eligible for one of
many door prizes!
For more information, contact: R. Scott Helsel, Event
Coordinator, 13938 Brantley, San Antonio, Texas 78233.
Phone: (210) 655-4672; GEnie mail: R. Helsel; Internet mail:
r.helsel@genie.geis.com.
Migraph Ships Scanner for TT
Migraph, Inc. began shipping the new Migraph Color-
Burst color hand scanner exclusively for Atari TT computers.
The ColorBurst has four scanning modes: Super Color Mode
(18 -bit), Color Mode (12 -bit), Greyscale (64 levels), and
Monochrome/line art (text). Resolutions from 50 to 400 dots
per inch are available. Migraph Color KiT software scans, dis¬
plays, and saves color, greyscale, and monochrome images in
TIFF, IMG, TARGA, and IFF file formats. Migraph OCR Jr.
software for scanning and reading text is optionally available.
The ColorBi . for the TT is available separately and
bundled with Migraph OCR Jr. Omnifont Optical Character
Recognition program. The suggested list price is $519 ($569
with OCR). The Migraph ColorBurst runs on Atari TT com¬
puters with 4MB of RAM. A hard disk is recommended.
[Migraph, 32700 Pacific Highway S., Suite 14, Federal
Way, WA 98003. Phone: (206) 838-4677; Fax: (206)
838 -4702.
Cleveland Free-Net Atari SIG
In an effort to bring professinal support to Atari users at
absolutely no cost , the Cleveland Free -Net Atari SIG has re¬
leased a new version of its SIG. The main goal of the Cleve¬
land Free-Net Atari Sig is to offer the most support possible
to Atari users. The Cleveland Free— Net Atari SIGOps feel
that this new version is comparable to that of Atari SIGs on
pay systems.
The additions to the Atari SIG include:
* Direct access to Atari related International Usenet news-
groups.
* An enhancement of the already popular “8-bit Computers
Support Area,” which now includes ALL the issues pub¬
lished of Z*Magazinc and a new improved Technical Fo¬
rum for 8— bit programmers and hardware hackers.
* A restructured “16/32 -bit Support Area,” which now in¬
cludes more infomation text files than ever before. The
support area includes a large list of files that can be re¬
ceived from popular FTP sites like
atari.archives.umich.edu. Over 400 online magazines are
included online with every issue of Z*Net and ST Report
from 1989. All issues of Atari Explorer Online are also
available.
* Also available is an improved “Lynx Support Area,” a new
“Jaguar Support Area,” and an “Atari Library” that is truly
a library for Atari users. The Atari Library includes: many
information text files and documents; a “Time Capsule”
for old, but important, information; online publications;
Usenet newsgroups; CAIN Newsletters; and Atari SIG
logs. The Atari Library also includes the Atari SIG’s
“Who’s Who in the Atari Community” e-mail address di¬
rectory.
The Cleveland Free-Net Community Computer System
is a multi-user system that supports hundreds of users online,
simultaneously. Internet users may access the Cleveland
Free-Net at the following telent address:
freenet-in-a.cwru.edu,
freenet-in -b.cwru.edu,
freenet — in -c.cwru.edu
(129.22.8.32 or 129.22.8.51)
The Cleveland Free— Net is accessible via modem by the
phone number: 216/368-3888.
If there is a Free— Net in your city, the Cleveland Free-
Net is accessible through the “Teleport” option.
The Cleveland Free-Net is not just a local community
computer system. Atari users from all over the world access
the Atari SIG on the Cleveland Free-Net daily to participate
in bulletin board conversations and to contribute news and in¬
formation.
Atari conferences are usually held once a month on the
IRC (go ire). If interested in participating in these confer¬
ences, check the Cleveland Free— Net Atari SIG’s General
Bulletin Board for time and date information.
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 9
March 16, 1994
This morning I received issue No. 90, the February/
March 1994 publication of FEEDBACK, an Atari user
group magazine published by the Adelaide Atari Computer
Club. I read it from cover to cover, always interested in
things happening in Australia, as I rarely have the opportu¬
nity to drop in and visit around those parts (small under¬
statement). On page 10 was an article entitled “Rise and
Fall of Atari Oz.” I had already heard many of the details
via private email on GEnie from a few friends in Perth and
Sydney. Regardless, I found the article quite informative.
One paragraph in particular though, caught my eye. On the
top of page 12 it says: “Calamus SL is light years beyond
anything on any other platform but does it sell well in Aus¬
tralia? No! Pirate copies outnumber legitimate versions 10
to one.” Ouch!
My pleasure at the compliment to Calamus SL was
eclipsed by my chagrin at this glimpse of the reality of be¬
ing a software publisher. Just perhaps, I thought to myself,
I can actually do something about this! It’s tough enough
running a business with serious software on the Atari plat¬
form without giving up 9 out of 10 potential sales to pi¬
rates. It’s also hard in light of Atari’s lack of commitment
to their own computer division, says I, as tactfully as pos¬
sible. I am determined to bring these people into the Ibid,
as it were, or at least offer them that opportunity.
With that in mind, I fired off a letter to FEEDBACK
offering their readers a thing or two. Concentrating further
on the very concept, it occured to me that I would be do¬
ing DMC a grave injustice if I didn’t make the same offer
through the best Atari publication in North America. I im¬
mediately sat down to write this letter to Joe Waters of
Current Notes feme.
I have a message to deliver and perhaps Current Notes
can assist me in delivering that message to a larger audi¬
ence. My message is feirly straightforward and should
come as no surprise to many of you. Simply put, it’s tough
supporting a serious computer product on the Atari plat¬
form today. I’ll guess that it’s been over 2 years since Atari
sold anything approaching a viable level of computers, one
that would actually justify new product development! That
said, “So what!” says I. We have an excellent product in
Calamus SL. We continue to support it, update it, upgrade
it, add new modules and, basically, ignore the reality of
Atari Corporation in favour of the needs of our own
well-established customer base. We all know that some
people have chosen to leave the Atari platform, but I know
for a feet that many have stayed because of products such
as Calamus SL. We are told so by our customers daily. At
DMC, every single customer is important. The larger,
stronger and broader the user base, the better off we will
all be. Of course, reality does rear its ugly head every now
and then which is why DMC will soon release the Win¬
dows NT version of Calamus, for all those non-Atari
types. I heard they were starting to feel deprived or some¬
thing.
In that vein, if you own an illegal copy of Calamus SL,
I want you to go legit! No more hiding that pirate copy. If
you use Calamus SL, please, buy the real thing. I’ll as¬
sume you have at least a few megs of RAM and either an
Atari monochrome monitor that handles 640 x 400 or a
multi-frequency monitor that does at least 640 x 350. Cala¬
mus is compatible with all graphics cards in 1, 4, 8, 24/32
bit as well.
As we continue to develop and support Calamus SL
and new modules are released, it is imperative that we
reach out to as many people as possible so I’d also like to
address all non-Calamus Atari DTP program owners at the
same time. It is quite common, for example, to find those
interested in desktop publishing with both Calamus SL and
Pagestream. I extended an offer to Pagestream customers
online some time ago but I never did go directly to an
Atari publication. It’s time. For all those with a pirate copy
of Calamus SL, it’s time for you to stand up and put the
past behind you. For all those with any other desktop pub¬
lishing software on the Atari platform, i.e. ; Pagestream,
Fleet Street, Publisher ST or even Deskset II, I’m making it
as easy and as cost-effective as I can for you to also obtain
the best desktop publishing software on the Atari platform,
and arguably, one of the best in the world on any platform
at any price. It’s time!
On behalf of DMC, I am proud to announce a special
offer for all those without Calamus SL who are desktop
publishing on the Atari platform. Effective immediately,
DMC Publishing will offer those of you who currently
own Pagestream, Fleet Street, Publisher ST or Deskset II,
the option of also obtaining Calamus SL. Keep your copy
of whatever you are now using while expanding your pos¬
sibilities with Calamus SL.
[ i, thispt^tihjdtf^r. ■?
Page 10
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
Simply put, I am offering you the exact same upgrade
price that I offered to my own Calamus 1.09N customers. I
think you’ll agree that I cannot do better than that. Please
take advantage of our offer. You will not be sorry.
To order, send DMC a photocopy by mail or fax of
your original DTP program disks from whichever program
you are using, (a screen snap shot of your Calamus info
screen located in the top left-hand corner of the program if
you have a pirate version or just mail in the disk) your
name, address, telephone number and a listing of the com¬
puter equipment that you own, plus the upgrade fee of US
$200.00, or $260.00 CDN. and $10.00 for shipping and in¬
surance in North America. Payment may be made by Visa,
Mastercard or Money Order in Canadian or US dollars by
telephone, tax or email.
DMC recognizes that you can become comfortable us¬
ing a program. Further, we acknowledge that there are
many excellent features in other DTP programs, which
may be of value to you. We do not ask you to trade in your
original disks. Keep them. We’re confident that once you
learn Calamus SL you’ll never look back! This offer, ex¬
tended to all Atari computer owners in North America,
will expire June 15, 1994 and will not be repeated.
Calamus SL
As was anticipated, the new modular design of Cala¬
mus SL has become the centre of a powerful and ever— ex¬
panding universe of desktop publishing tools.
The standard Calamus SL package contains:
• A 600 page manual
• Four program disks with 12 standard modules:
• Clipboard Module
• Page Module
• Frame Module
• Text Module
• Text Style Module
• Line Module
• Raster Area Module
• Document Converter Module
• System Parameters Module
• PKS -Write Module
• Raster Generator Module
• Focoltone Module
• Printer Driver Generator Utility
The above, along with the main Calamus SL shell,
contains over 1,000 features!
For those of you familiar with Calamus 1.09N , new
features and powerful enhancements from Calamus 1.09N
to Calamus SL include:
The ability to accept modules, internal or third party.
The ability to process and pre-process large passages of
text with speed and precision. Extended raster control with
freely definable raster angles and widths. Intensity and
contrast can now be corrected, while an integral histogram
allows you to optimize an image for your output device.
The PKS-Write Module provides standard word processing
functions plus the ability to edit layout information. The
addition of Cache and Virtual Memory speeds up and ex¬
tends memory-dependent functions. Create hundreds of
macros, each assigned to a definable key binding which
can be saved and automatically installed in each work ses¬
sion.
• Open up to seven documents at a time.
• Cut & paste to our new scrolling clipboard.
• Create and assign master pages (style sheets).
• Create and save text style lists.
• Expand, compress and skew text.
• Rotate and mirror frames, including group frames.
• Control frame placement and size to (7) seven deci¬
mal places.
• Print parts of pages (tiling).
• Define more than 16 million colours and save in col¬
our lists.
• Set units of measurement for pages, fonts and lines.
• Choose write modes: transparent, opaque and in¬
verse.
• Align frames to other frames.
• Define vertical alignment settings.
DMC brings "WYNIWYG" (What You Need Is What
You Get) to desktop publishing. The modular concept
means that you purchase exactly what you need today, with
the knowledge that additional modules are available when
you require them. Your choice is now easier and more eco¬
nomical, since you will be purchasing specialized mod¬
ules, rather than entire packages.
Currently, more than a dozen modules and scores of
drivers are available for use with Calamus SL. We will
publicize the availability of new modules, drivers and
upgrades through our normal Customer Support channels,
as well as through periodic mailings to our registered users
and press releases to all serious Atari publications.
Sincerely,
Nathan Potechin - President
DMC Publishing
2800 John Street, Unit #10
Markham, Ontario Canada L3R 0E2
GEnie:DMCPUBLISH Tel: (905) 479-1880
Delphi:DMCPUBLISH Fax: (905) 479-1882
CompuServe: 76004,2246
Internet:DMCPUBLISH@GENIE.GEIS.COM
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 11
'Pownfat Altenttativei ?
Htacl- Olden ‘pcutc&m
&tnnent 'Hotel
Hello again, everyone. The response to my becoming edi¬
tor has been wonderful, and I wish to thank everyone who has
taken the time to send me mail. Now, on with the news.
Powerful Alternatives? In the February issue of UNIX
World’s Open Computing there are reviews of Norton Desktop
and x.Desktop, two programs that provide desktop functions
to PC’s and Unix Workstations, respectively. The reviews
weren’t lengthy, but they did focus on some of the unique fea¬
tures of each product :
Norton Desktop :
— will allow you to drag a data file on an application icon
and have the application load and open the data file.
— needs 500K RAM and 9MB disk space
x.Desktop :
— will allow you to link data files with program applications
so that a program will automatically load and open the
data file when the data file is double-clicked.
Hmm... do these two features sound very familiar? Yes,
that’s it: We have had the “link” feature (we call it Install Ap¬
plication) since 1985 with GEM and the “drag and drop” fea¬
ture with NeoDesk (and now Newdesk) since 1988. Granted,
these programs do lots more than what I have listed here, but
the reviewer chose to focus on two features that we Atarians
have had for many years. Our Atari’s may not have the most
sophisticated software available, but it is probably the most
useful.
Time for a Diatribe. I think the preceding paragraphs com¬
pletely describe the dilemma people have when using and
choosing a computer today. Often, software publishers keep
adding features to their programs (just to sell upgrades, I im¬
agine), without any consideration as to what would be genu¬
inely useful. DOS (and Windows) machines are incredibly
powerful computers, but also incredibly complicated to use
and set up.
I spend a lot of time in my day job dealing with MS-DOS
machines, and look forward to the chance to use my Atari.
I’ve seen many people completely screw up their machines be¬
cause they don’t understand how a CONFIG.SYS or AU¬
TOEXEC.BAT file works. End-users shouldn’t be expected to
understand the intricacies of a computer, but with DOS (or
Windows) you have no choice. Regardless, I have found that
people migrate to DOS machines, mostly for the following
reasons:
1. They are the standard so there is much software.
2. They are readily available.
3. They are inexpensive.
These same people also tell me that they would love to have a
system that is not so complicated to use, but still provide the
functionality they need. I feel that the Atari provides the
ease-of-use that many are looking for. How many users really
need the power that Microsoft Word or WordPerfect 6 have?
These programs require something like six megabytes of
RAM before you can even load them. Is that necessary? Peo¬
ple are always amazed at how easy it is to use my MegaSTe
setup and want their DOS machine to also be as simple to
use, but it just won’t happen. Granted, Atari machines are less
sophisticated than 486DX2 machines with OS/2, but is that
much power really needed by the average computer user?
Current Notes Real-Time Conference. There will be a Cur¬
rent Notes RTC on GEnie this month. Show up Wednesday,
April 27 for the RTC. Many of your friendly Current Notes
authors will be there: Joe Waters, myself, Rick Reaser, Dave
Troy and (possibly) J.A. Wrotniak. We will even give away a
free subscription.
Marcel 1$ Now Shareware. Be sure to read the news and an¬
nouncements this month. Marcel, the word processor that
was reviewed by John Godbey in the September issue is now
shareware with a registration fee of only $10! This is an excep¬
tional bargain for a complete word processor with spelling
checker. Registration also includes a manual. See the press
release for more details. (Available on CN Disk #884.)
ST Gaming Digest C eases Publication. This online ST games
magazine has stopped publishing, citing the lack of new game
releases for Atari machines. ST Gaming Digest has been pub¬
lishing since October, 1991. I have never been much of a
games person, but it is always sad when another Atari publi¬
cation is unable to continue.
Mail-order Falcons. No longer the oxymoron it once was,
Atari has decided to allow dealers to sell Falcons via mail or¬
der. What this means is not exactly defined; perhaps Atari just
wants to more completely focus its energy on Jaguar. There
have been rumors around that Atari is planning on clearing
out existing inventories of Falcons-— don’t believe them. Atari
is still building and selling the Falcon. Hopefully, Atari didn’t
wait too long to implement this. On another note, the TT030
Page 12
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
is now available again as is Atari’s co-op advertising program.
Signs of good things to come? We hope so.
Current Notes Shareware Corner. Current Notes is testing a
new method of distribution for shareware programs. We will
be taking orders for several shareware programs (shareware
authors: contact us if you want to be added to the list). Cur¬
rently, we have the following titles available: (These are the
FULL, REGISTERED versions.)
* DataBasement Registration Deal, $30. (See the
press release in the March News and Announcements.)
* MasterBrowse - Text File Viewer, $15.
* Oracle - GEnie or Delphi front-end for STalker 3, $15.
You can order with your Visa or MasterCard through the Cur¬
rent Notes Library.
Atari Shows. When I started to write this month’s column,
I was going to comment on the lack of Atari show announce¬
ments so far this year. Well, if you read the News and An¬
nouncements section you should now know that the Connecti¬
cut AtariFest is returning for its fourth year. Hopefully, there
will be as many attenders and vendors as there were last year.
I have had a good time attending the Connecticut AtariFest the
last couple of years, especially since I don’t have a local
dealer (closest is in southern Massachusetts— about three
hours away). Reserve your room now. I’ll see you there!
Tempest 2000 for Jaguar. During the weekend of March
4th, Atari offered Tempest 2000, one of the most eagerly
awaited Jaguar games, to folks online. GEnie, CompuServe,
and Delphi members were allowed to order Tempest 2000 via
email for two days at a reduced price. Ten lucky people were
also randomly picked to receive Tempest 2000 now, instead of
waiting the several weeks for its normal arrival. Jay Millar
(JMILLAR) of Delphi was a lucky winner of a Tempest 2000
cartridge and received it just two days after he was notified.
Other Notes. I still have many products that are awaiting
reviews. If you are interested in reviewing software, please get
in touch with me. I don’t like to have software sitting around
and would like to see reviews appear quicker than they have
in the past.
Developers, send us your new products. As they say, the
best way to increase a product’s sales is by having it reviewed.
How to reach me.
U.S. mail: Paul Lefebvre, ST Editor, Current Notes
78 Winter Street
Portland, ME 04102
Phone: (207) 828-1225
E-mail GEnie: P. LEFEBVRE
Delphi: PLEFEBVRE
Internet: plefebvre@delphi.com
Pocket Hard Drive Systems
SBB™BB^^nsi3eT?o^^ove^OToffier products/ order info.
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40 Meg - $299
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actual size
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 13
The Information Superhighway:
at ftwieet Panadi^m?
(C) 1994 David C. Troy
one of the persons mentioned here knew anything about it.”
avc you ever experienced Jung then says that he had written this passage by the lake-
deja vu? Have you ever sensed a “message” or “feeling” that side. He got up and went to observe the water. At the edge of
seems to come from a remote place? Have you ever felt like the lake was a dead fish, apparently uninjured, bringing the
you had ESP? Everyone has a story. Sometimes it seems that grand fish total to eight.
everything in your life seems to revolve on a common theme. However, Jung believes that this Monty Pythonish string
Coincidences, dreams, sensations, premonitions. All of these of events is, however startling, a coincidence that fits well
can be said to be the product of a common source. within the bounds of probability and causality. He goes on to
In his 1952 essay, Synchronicity: An Acausal Connect- cite various other experiments and occurrences that might be
ing Principle,” Carl Jung says that human beings arc con- a little more difficult to reconcile.
nected together in a kind of way that defies common sense J.B. Rhine, a contemporary of Jung, conducted various
ideas about the physical world. We, as humans, are condi- experiments where test subjects were asked to identify 25
tioned to thinking that the world operates on the basis of cards with geometric patterns on them. (The subjects had
cause and effect— that is to say, that for every event occurring their own deck and would guess which card was selected by
in the world there is some antecedent cause that came first in Rhine.) The decks were shuffled and the test subjects were
time. Newton’s Natural Philosophy, the cornerstone of mod- separated from Rhine by a wall. Many of the test subjects per-
ern mechanical physics, is built around the spatio-temporal formed no better than chance would dictate. But several sub¬
theory of causality. Every reaction (cause) has an equal and jects were able to consistently guess these cards at odds well
opposite reaction (effect). Because Newton’s view of the natu- above probability. One young man was able to guess all 25
ral world (and the theory of causality) works so well in every- cards correctly with odds of over 1 to 2 million,
day practice, it has been applied non-slop to other areas or The next test was to determine whether these results
natural science. The theory of causality, along with the bag- would be affected by distance. So on one occasion, test sub¬
gage it carries, is something that most of us have come to take jects were placed in Zagreb, Yugoslavia while Rhine re¬
fer granted as plain common sense. mained in Durham, North Carolina. The results were not sig-
Jung says that there is reason to believe that the theory of nificantly affected— even by the huge distance. The best sub¬
causality, so important to philosophers like Kant, is suspect at jects still performed well above average,
best. Jung, a great student of dreams and other quasi-re- The last step was to remove the factor of time— and of
spectable psychological phenomena like ESP, says that there causality— from the testing. Test subjects were asked to pre-
are undeniable examples of “meaningful coincidences” every- diet the order of the tester’s deck beforehand. And again, the
day in our lives. To his credit, Jung says that there are many results held up. It appeared that there were some people who
coincidences, however improbable, that can be explained were able to sense the arrangement of the cards— even before
away as being within the range of mathematical probability, they had been arranged. This led Jung to renounce, or at least
Jung says: amend, the theory of causality. Jung’s corollary is that of a
“To mention but one example of many, I noted the fol- theory of synchronicity.
lowing on April 1, 1949: Today is Friday. We have fish for Jung believed there was no way to reconcile arguably im-
lunch. Somebody happens to mention the custom of making possible coincidences with the prevailing theory of causality,
an April Fish of someone. That morning I made a note of an Jung said that for causality to explain the copious examples of
inscription that said, ‘Est homo toto medius piscis ab imo.’ In “meaningful coincidence” — and he goes on to cite many oth-
the afternoon, a former patient of mine whom I have not seen ers, such as a man sensing a distant newspaper headline as it
for months, showed me some extremely impressive pictures is printed, and another man who sensed the death of a
of fish which she painted in the meantime. In the evening I far-away friend — it would have to rely on energy-based theo-
was shown a piece of embroidery with fish like little sea mon- ries. That is to say, that somehow these receptors of remote
sters in it. On the morning of April 2, another patient whom I messages are somehow “picking up” what could be thought of
had not seen for many years told me a dream in which she as weak radio signals being transmitted through the atmos-
had stood on the shore of a lake and saw a large fish that phere by their source.
swam straight towards her and landed at her feet. I was at this But if this were the case, how can we explain instances of
time engaged in a study of the fish symbol in history. Only precognition, such as we saw with the cards? Our test subject
Page 14
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
would have to be picking up a radio signal which did not exist
yet. How could this be? Is he picking up a molecular configu¬
ration which did not exist yet? Apparently not. Somehow, by
reaching through time, our subject is able to predict the ar¬
rangement of these cards without relying on any causal rela¬
tionships at all. So, he says, given that causality seems to be
flawed, he proposes synchronicity as a way in which mean¬
ingful coincidences may be explained. He says, as in the title
of the essay, that synchronicity is “an acausal connecting prin¬
ciple.”
Whether you believe in Jung’s conclusions or not, there
is an interesting conclusion that we pawns of the information
age can take away with us: synchronicity is the elemental par¬
ticle of the fabled information superhighway. In fact, syn¬
chronicity is such a good model for discussing this issue that
it may warrant a reevaluation of the discussion.
One last Jungian interlude. He cites Wilhelm von Schols,
a fellow German, who was told a story of a mother who had
taken photographs of her boy in the Black Forest. She left the
film in Frankfurt in 1914 to be developed, but due to the out¬
break of the war was unable to pick it up. In 1916, she pur¬
chased some film so she could take a picture of her baby girl.
When she developed the film, she noticed that it had been ex¬
posed twice; the first time with her boy, the second time with
her girl. Somehow the film, in the confusion of the war, had
re-entered circulation and inexplicably re-entered her hands
two years later. This story led von Schols to conclude that
there is a “mutual attraction of related objects” and that there
is a “greater and more comprehensive consciousness which is
unknowable.”
If synchronicity is the network protocol of this human in¬
formation infrastructure, then this comprehensive conscious¬
ness is, in fact, the network. Ponder this.
Colonizing the Unknowable
Think about what the world ultimately hopes to gain
from an information infrastructure. Ideally, the goal is to pro¬
vide individuals and companies with the ability to open multi¬
ple instantaneous bi-directional communication links with any
number of information sources (could be computers, video
sources, telephone systems, audio servers, etc.), anywhere in
the world.
The world at large is uncertain what to expect from an
“information highway.” The digital information link that the
world knows best at this point is that of a modem and a tel¬
ephone line. It allows one single computer to connect with
one other computer. If people perceive that an information
highway would work in the same fashion— -like a really fast
point A to point B modem— then the value of this highway
would be hard to see. Subsequently, the White House, or any¬
one else who is excited about implementing this kind of infra¬
structure is going to have a hard time justifying its costs to
taxpayers and to corporate America.
Perhaps, then, we ought to reconsider the name we’ve
chosen for this ubiquitous ’90’s craze, lest it become a pet
rock. The term highway implies a single connecting link be¬
tween point A and point B. You take 1-95 to get from Philadel¬
phia to New York quickly. While a highway does link together
many, many destinations, its structure forces you to choose
just two points: a source and a destination. Point A and point
B. It is never possible for a single user to drive from point A
to both points B and C simultaneously, nor can he do it infi¬
nitely fast. Is this the kind of infrastructure we’re after, an in¬
formation infrastructure that will last into the 22nd century?
Arguably it is not. We want to be able to connect to many
different destinations simultaneously and instantaneously. If
you need proof of this, look at this scenario.
You want to pay your credit card bills. You bring up two
(or more) windows on our screen. One window is connected
to your bank’s computer. The other windows are connected to
your various credit card companies. In the bank window, you
see a listing of your current (up to the second) bank state¬
ment. In the bill windows we would see a listing of our cur¬
rent credit card bills (up to the second).
To pay an item on your bill, click on it and drag it into
your bank window. The charge disappears from the credit
card bill window, and a “payment” line appears in your bank
window. Your balance would drop from $1490.50 to $1169.02
automatically. If you decide that you’re not ready to pay the
bill, simply drag the payment line back into the Credit Card
window. Or, just press undo.
While you’re doing this (on your AT&T 21” InfoTerm),
you have another window connected to the computer at your
office. You can keep an eye on sales for that day and make
sure that everyone’s working hard. It keeps a running sales to¬
tal displayed at the top of the window continuously.
You have another window connected to the New York
Stock Exchange. You’re keeping an eye on your Atari stock,
and you watch its price as it bobs through the day. The price
is displayed in the left half of the window while a graph plots
its hourly progress on the right.
Another window is connected to a friend’s hotel room in
Los Angeles, where he is on a business trip. You’re typing
back and forth about the weather, but you tell him that you re¬
ally must go because you’re trying to pay the bills, unless of
course he wants to go to teleconference mode, which you do.
It slows down the machine a little, but you can see him, in a
resizable window, as he speaks to you from afar in stereo sur¬
round sound. Next to him is a muted TVLink window, where
you’re watching Sanford and Son reruns.
This is what people want from a global network. To do
all that stuff (without using 10 phone lines or a bunch of satel¬
lite downlinks), it is essential that the network allow multiple
simultaneous bi-directional connections with an unlimited
number of other destinations, and this desire is not explicitly
addressed in the current term “information highway.” So we
have to change what we call it.
Recall now Wilhelm von Schols, and his “greater and
more comprehensive consciousness.”This consciousness has
none of the limitations of a highway. It is synchronistically
available to everyone, everywhere, all the time. It is so vast
and so comprehensive that it allows a single person an infinite
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 15
number of “connections.” It offers simultaneous (or faster, as
in the case of the precognito test subjects) data transmission.
It is, thus, what we are after. What we want to build is not an
information highway, but a global information consciousness.
Once we have defined that this is what we arc, in fact,
building, this information consciousness, we can start to snap
puzzle pieces together. Remember that von Schols said that
this greater consciousness is unknowable to us, except when it
is revealed to us by coincidences or people who seem, for
whatever reason, to be in touch with it.
If we have established that both von Schols’s conscious¬
ness and our ideal information consciousness are infinitely
fast, infinitely connectable networks, then they are equivalent
entities. The thing that we are trying to build is the same thing
that von Schols and Jung and countless others have already
discovered. Remember, though that von Schols said that this
consciousness is unknowable. This is precisely what we are
reversing. We are making this shared human consciousness
knowable.
As we have already started this process with a dizzying
myriad of on-line services, and, of course, the Internet, we
have begun the earliest stages of mapping this unknown. The
information consciousness is Cyberspace and Cyberspace is
von Schols’s comprehensive consciousness. An information
consciousness may be more than just a way for business to
work better and for individuals to communicate. When it
reaches equilibrium, it may, in fact, become the key that un¬
locks the secret of the human condition. It may answer the
question that we alone cannot answer: why are we here?
This is a lofty claim, to be sure. But no one can know
what the implications of a worldwide, practically instantane¬
ous (ATM derivatives ought to deliver 1000Mbit or better
transfer rates) infinitely connectable network would be. Some
people worry about the effects of information over¬
load (57,000,000,000 information servers and nothing’s on).
Can we, as humans, endure the tidal wave of information that
we are trying so desperately to seed?
Marshall McLuhan was the poster child of media in the
’60’s. As people began to struggle with the power of televi¬
sion, film, radio and print, McLuhan was there to post a uni¬
fying theory. The medium is the message, he said. He also
made some startlingly Jungian claims that directly support the
idea of re-sou ndby ting “information highway” into “informa¬
tion consciousness.”
Jung’s biggest gripe with causality is the evidence that
disagrees with it. To believe in causality, he says, you must
also believe in three dimensional space and time as given and
a priori. Three dimensional space and time cannot work as
wc think they do. If they did, the evidence he has against it
(precognition, ESP) could not exist. He believes that space
and time arc crutches that wc have developed to help us
through an infinitely dimensional universe which operates
with synchronicity at its core.
McLuhan said the same thing of the print medium. “[The
Alphabet] fostered and encouraged the habit of perceiving all
environment in visual and spatial terms— particularly in terms
of a space and of a time that are uniform.” McLuhan, then,
cannot believe that causality works. And, in fact, he does not.
He believes that only the print medium is subject to causality.
One must assume, then, that he intends for all other media to
operate using some other principle as its ground rule. That
principle is, it is fair to assume, synchronicity. He says, “The
Page 16
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
alphabet and print technology fostered and encouraged a frag¬
menting process, a process of specialism and detachment.
Electric technology fosters unification and involvement. The
instantaneous world of electric informational media involves
all of us, all at once. No detachment is possible.” These words
are 27 years old and just as applicable to the “information
consciousness” now as they were to Viet Nam then.
So consider it, then. Cyberspace, electric media, the hu¬
man consciousness, and the information consciousness we arc
trying to build. They are all the same things. They all run off
the same batteries. It all runs on synchronicity.
It’s understandable that A1 Gore would have wanted to
call this thing the information highway. It was his father who
helped create the interstate highway system in the 1950’s. It
was about 10 years ago that Gore himself first began to use the
phrase “information highway,” and at that time, the only dig¬
ital communication metaphor was that of a modem. Ameri¬
cans like cars, and they understand highways. But to get at
what this thing really is, we must turn to a new description.
So the next time you experience an “extra-sensory” phe¬
nomenon, consider that the incident itself may be a glimpse of
the kind of transcendental network that may one day arise out
of the Internet and its National Information Infrastructure
child. While it’s a stretch to say that a digital conscious net¬
work is going to glue the world together and solve the riddle
of humanity in one shot, there’s a good chance that it could
come up with an answer that is at least more satisfying than
the “42” proposed in Douglas Adams’ “Hitchiker’s Guide to
the Galaxy.” Give connection machines and neural nets time
to develop. Hook them up to a worldwide network. Give peo¬
ple personal digital assistants. Develop brainwave decoders.
All of these things are on the stove, and they are laying the
groundwork for a vastly comprehensive consciousness that
will allow humans to interact as quickly as neurons fire in our
own brains. Only time will tell what the results will be.
REACHING ME:
Genie: TOAD-SERV.
Internet: TOAD-SERV. @gen ie.geis.com
BBS: (410) 544-6999
FAX: (410) 544-1329
Mail: 570-F Ritchie Highway
Severna Park, MD 21146
If you have any comments on this subject, specificially
on its relation to transcendentalism, please write.
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April 1994
Current Notes
Page 17
\^by J. Andrzej Wrotniak J
Spies, Morons
and the Rest of Us
How to Run Circles Around KGB and NSA
If the allegations against Mr. Ames are true, then he is
not only a traitor and a spy, but, in the language of political
correctness, an intellectually disadvantaged person , and very
much so. Unfortunately, the last can be said, also, about those
in the CIA whose task was to prevent such cases.
Here we have the head of the Soviet counterintelligence
in the, supposedly, leading intelligence (huh?) agency in the
world, selling top secrets to the competition, at the same time
throwing his money all around, keeping stacks of supersecret
documents on his front porch, and, mind you, being able to
get away with it for eight years or so. These are strange,
strange times. . .
From what I have read, the CIA was unable to spot the
suspect during a meeting with any of his Soviet/Russian con¬
tacts, but they have found quite a lot of incriminating informa¬
tion in the disk files of his home computer. And this is what
worries me: with some elementary precautions, the guy could
easily have avoided that. Here, I am going to write about just
one aspect of this problem.
Welcome to the wonderful world of mathematical cryp¬
tology. (And do not even think about turning this page before
reading the rest of it; this article does not assume any math
skills beyond the fourth grade!)
Cryptology 101
Not only in the busy and complex world of military and
industrial espionage, but also in many areas of business, a ca¬
pability to store and transfer information so that only the in¬
tended recipient is able to read it, is a very important prob¬
lem.
Here is the most common model: Ms.S (for Sender) has
to send some supersecret message [M] to Mr.R (for Recipi¬
ent), but the channels through which the message is passed to
Mr.R (computer network, postal service, messenger, denoted
shortly as “mail”) is insecure, i.e. the message can be inter¬
cepted by the competition. Therefore, sending [M] “as is,” i.e.
in plain, easily readable, form, does not make sense. This can
be written as
S -> [M] -> mail-> [M] -> R
(which can be read as, “Ms.S writes message [Ml and mails
it, and then Mr.R receives the message and reads it.”)
Therefore, Ms.S will use some prescription, called en¬
cryption key (EK) to transform [M] into an encrypted form,
[EM], hopefully unreadable for the prying eyes (or comput¬
ers) of the competition. On the other end of the mail pipeline,
Mr.R will use a matched decryption key to transfer [EM] back
into [M], which he can read:
S -> [M] -> EK -> [EM] ->
-> mail ->
->[EM] -> DK -> [M] -> R
(I am not explaining my ad hoc invented notation here, but it
should be clear by now; please only notice that the square
brackets are used to denote the information being passed.)
This scheme has been used for about two thousand years,
with mixed results.
First of all, usually each of the keys EK and DK consists,
really, of two parts. One is the algorithm used for transform¬
ing [M] into [EM] and back again; the other part is some nu¬
merical (or textual) parameter value used in the process. It is
convenient to use the same algorithm in various exchanges
(c.g., sending mail to Messrs. Rl, R2, R3 and so forth) with
various parameters (or parameter pairs) for use with indi¬
vidual recipients. The competition may have our algorithm, so
that we have to assume it does have it. Therefore, the security
of our system depends on the assumption that only Mr.R has
the key parameter used in DK. Quite often, instead of key pa¬
rameter, we just say key without causing any ambiguities.
Second, most of the classic cryptosystems require that
the length of the key parameter be comparable to the total
length of exchanged messages (and, please, let me spare you
the details). Otherwise, the eggheads in Fort Meade, MD
(National Security Agency: my neighbors, a few miles down
the road), or somewhere near Moscow, would be able to
crack our key with their supercomputers in no time. They are
good, or at least so we believe.
Third, Ms.S has to know ahead of time that she will be
sending a message to Mr.R, and she has to provide him then
with the decryption key. This, again, calls for a secure chan¬
nel of information. This is frequently done in the world of
spying (say, Chuck, why don’t we meet in Vienna, nyet?), but
it may be unacceptable in sensitive business situations, when
an urgent need may arise to send a secure message to a party
with whom we never dealt before.
Public Key Cryptosystenis
What can be done, can be undone, they say. For a long
time it was understood that the knowledge of the encryption
key, EK, is equivalent to the knowledge of the decryption key,
DK, i.e. that if we know one, then (with some effort, of
course), we can obtain the other.
Page 18
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
This, indeed, was at one time true about all known cryp¬
tosystems. Let us, for a while, assume that things do not have
to be this way.
In such a case, our recipient, Mr.R, could have published
his encryption key, EK, in his corporate brochure, phone di¬
rectory, or in the yearbook of the KGB, inviting anyone to
send him encrypted messages, which only he, Mr.R, would
be able to read! The same could be done by any other poten¬
tial recipient (Rl, R2, R3. . .) and we could have a global net¬
work of secure communication, with anyone capable of send¬
ing secure mail to anyone. All it takes is to publish your EK,
while, of course, keeping your DK for yourself.
Note that the competition, now also capable of sending
Mr.R an encrypted message only he can read, is, under this
assumption, unable to figure out the decryption key, DK, even
having at their disposal both the plain message, [M], and the
encrypted one, [EM].
Unfortunately, Mr.R cannot be sure from whom is he re¬
ceiving all these messages. Should he follow the one asking
for six more pounds of plutonium sent to Baghdad, or maybe
the one asking for six pounds of sand?
This means that, in addition to secure encoding of mes¬
sages, we also need a secure way of message authorization, or
a kind of unforgable signature. This will require one more as¬
sumption about our keys. In addition to the obvious
[M] -> EK -> [EM] -> DK -> [M]
we will require that
[M] -> DK -> [EM’] -> EK - [M].
The last formula means, that using the decryption key DK on
the message [M] will also somehow encrypt it into some
[EM*] (different than the [EM] in the previous case), from
which [M] can be extracted by applying EK.
Look: if I receive some encrypted letter [EM’], and then
use your public encryption key, EK to decode it and get some¬
thing meaningful, then I can be sure that the only person in
the world who could have sent (or, more precisely, encrypted)
it, is the owner of DK, which means you! We have a situation
here, where anyone can read your encoded message, [EM’],
but only you could have written it. This is an unforgeable sig¬
nature.
To have it both ways, i.e. to be able to send messages
which only Mr.R can read, but only Ms.S could have written,
both of them need to have their public (i.e. known to anyone)
keys as well as the private ones. Let us denote the keys be¬
longing to Ms.S as EKS and DKS, and those of Mr.R as EKR
and DKR. Now, let us submit our original message [M] to the
following procedure (read it slowly and you’ll be just fine):
S -> [M] -> DKS -> [EM’] -> EKR -> [EM] ->
-> mail ->
-> [EM] -> DKR -> [EM’] -> EKS -> [M] -> R
This scheme is critical to the concept of public key cryptosys¬
tems, so forgive me offending your intelligence and translating
everything in a plain (if accented) English:
1. Ms.S writes the message [M].
2. She uses her private decryption key, DKS, to encode it
into [EM’]— this is something only she can do, as only
she has the DKS.
3. Then she uses Mr.R’s public encryption key, EKR, to
generate a doubly-encoded version, [EM], This stage can
be done by anyone, as anyone can have EKR.
4. The doubly-encoded message [EM] is sent via an inse¬
cure mail channel to Mr.R who receives it.
5. Mr.R uses his private decryption key, DKR, to transform
[EM] into [EM’], exactly the same as the one generated
by Ms.S in point (2). Oh, yes, only he can do it, as only
he has the DKR.
6. Now he uses the public key of Ms.S, EKS, to decode
[EM’J into [M]. If the result makes any sense, he can be
sure that it was Ms.S who produced [EM’].
7. Mr.R reads the message [M], laughing.
The importance of this procedure cannot be overestimat¬
ed. Suddenly, even with use of insecure communication lines,
anyone can send secure messages to anyone (for example, au¬
thorizing huge money transfers) and sign them with a signa¬
ture that is impossible to forge!
The discussion above, made under an assumption that it
is possible to invent an encryption key, EK, from which one
cannot compute the corresponding decryption key, DK,
should suffice to explain the search for DK/EK algorithms
meeting this requirement.
The RSA Algorithm
In 1978 three American mathematicians, named Rivest,
Shamir and Adelman, published an article in a technical jour¬
nal. They proposed an encoding/decoding algorithm (abbrevi¬
ated as RSA, from the authors’ names) in which the knowl¬
edge of the public key parameter is not sufficient to learn the
private one.
To encode a message, you need an appropriate computer
program (and a relatively simple one) and the public key pa¬
rameter, which is a very large integer number, being a prod¬
uct of two primes.
A prime number, or just a prime, is a positive integer
number divisible only by one and by itself. For example, 18 is
not a prime number: it can be expressed as 3*6 or 2*9, but 17
is a prime: you cannot decompose it (the only two products
giving 17 are 1*17 and 17*1).
The private key parameter, which every participant of the
mail network keeps secret, is the pair of primes, which multi¬
plied give the public key.
Wait a minute, some would say, this is too simple! Obvi¬
ously, if I have a large number, N, and if I know that this
number is a product of two yet-unknown primes, P and Q,
and if I have all those supercomputers, mathematicians and
programmers, then I will certainly be able to find these
primes such that P*Q=N— you cannot be serious!
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 19
Well, this is true— as long as N is not too large. When N
reaches, say, 100 or 200 decimal digits, even the computer
search becomes too time-consuming to be feasible, even with
the most efficient algorithms! It may require a cluster of Cray
supercomputers working for, say, ten billion years. Fine, the
computer technology is progressing; maybe before the year
2000 we will be able to cut this down to just 500 million
years? If this is not safe enough, then adding just one or two
more digits to our key will let us sleep safely again.
Some of the Readers may ask how do we come up with
the two primes for our private key; if N is 200 digits long,
then P and Q have to be about 100 digits each, and testing
such numbers for primality is not a trivial matter.
It is, however, possible, except that the best method I
know works on a statistical basis: it may give me a probability
as close to one as I want, but never exactly one, that a given
M is prime. Fair enough, and, again, let me skip the details,
because playing with prime numbers is more than enough for
a whole series of articles.
Anyway, after the RSA breakthrough the world will never
be the same.
What the Governments Do Not Want Us to Know
Back in 1979 (or was it 1978?) I found a popular article
about the RSA-based public key cryptosystems in the Scien¬
tific American magazine. I still consider that article the best
introduction to the topic. It contained almost enough informa¬
tion to write a computer program implementing the RSA algo¬
rithm. If you want to learn more on the subject, spend an
hour in a library and you will not regret the time.
At the same time, the US Government was busy working
on its own public-key encryption standard. Together with
IBM (whom else?) they have devised the DES, Data Encryp¬
tion Standard. Do I have to tell you more? You ;an not just
keep throwing money at a big company and hope that it will
come up with something brilliant, or even useful. DES turned
out to be a dog, a laughingstock of the mathematical commu¬
nity: complex, mathematically unsound and, on top of that,
quite insecure.
In the meantime, all mathematicians and their mothers
kept spending countless hours trying to break the RSA algo¬
rithm. As far as I know, not much progress has been made:
the most promising approach requires the owner of the secret
key to encrypt a special message prepared by the opposition.
(Simple protection: never use your private key to encrypt mes¬
sages given to you by strangers, at least not without modifying
them first. Don’t accept candy, either.)
Number factorization has been one of the most re¬
searched topics in mathematics for the last 150 years. The
problem belongs to the so-called NP (non-polynomial) class;
let us just say that the time needed to factorize a number in¬
creases very, very fast with the number size itself. Computers
or not, RSA seems to be safe.
This is why many (possibly most) governments, except
those few who do not give a damn, like the Fiji Islands, are
very : : happy. Imagine a situation where a hobbyist teenager
(or a terrorist, or an S&L embezzler) can exchange email
with his buddies, and all the learned people of Fort Meade
can only watch? Or where millions of Chinese (at least those
who have computers) are exchanging subversive literature,
like copies of Orwell’s Animal Farm , and the secret police
cannot participate in the reading?
The US law enforcement agencies also seem to be quite
nervous. There is a new encryption standard being prepared
(what? is not DES the best?) and there is a discussion,
whether to make the standard weaker (so that you cannot
break the code on a PC, but you can on a Cray) or to make it
more secure, but giving the keys to some very honesty very
trusted people (like Mr. Ames?), who would use them only
when authorized and ovfty for our own good.
This is not as funny as it may sound. There is a thin line
between government’s protection of law and order on one
hand, and violating our privacy rights on the other. A few
years ago, the Polish police could just beat a (suspected) thief
up and he would show them gladly where the stolen goodies
were; now they can’t do it, and the recovery rate is drastically
down. Still, most of us would agree that this change in proce¬
dures was rather a good thing. We should pay more attention
to this encryption thing.
Whatever the future of the government-approved encryp¬
tion standard will be, the genie is out of the bottle. Nothing
can stop you and me from developing our own public key
cryptosystem, giving the software to anyone we want, and
putting this thing to any use we want: good or wrong, legal or
not. And the governments of the world will have to learn how
to live with that.
Farther Reading
Sorry, I’m too lazy to look up the Scientific American ar¬
ticle of 1978 (79?) mentioned in the text. Finding it in the in¬
dex should not, however, be a problem if you need an hour or
two of education and entertainment. Here are two other posi¬
tions which you may find interesting:
1. Possibly the most readable, simple, yet complete, in¬
troduction to the public key cryptosystems based on the RSA
algorithm can be found in the article by Diffie and Heilman,
“Privacy and Authentication: an Introduction to Cryptogra¬
phy” in the Proceedings of the IEEE , Vol.67, March 1979.
Amazingly, it does not really require almost any math beyond
the high school level.
2. There is a monograph: “Mathematical Cryptology”
by Wayne Patterson (Rowman and Littlefield, 1987). Some
parts of it require more math background, but the book con¬
tains an appendix with a number of useful procedures pro¬
grammed in Pascal, including the complete code of the RSA
algorithm. If you are looking for a do-it-yourself kit, this may
be it.
I have also seen a few Public Domain implementations of
the RSA system on GEnic or CompuServe (in the PC-DOS ar¬
eas). At least one of them comes with the source code in C,
which may be portable to the ST.
Page 20
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
C tn**’/
Current Notes ST Public Domain/Shareware Library jq
'Hetv 'Dtofo fa* TttmcA, & Apul *^Sc
Of
'nOfe
W
March 1994
#874/#875: Towers (2 disk set) a complete game with all the
functions intact. Works on ST/STE/Mcga/TT/Falcon comput¬
ers; Req 1 MB.
#876: Color Gomes. LANDMINE-A strategy game based on a
popular game for that other computer (c/m). MATCH _ UP-For
1-4 players, this colorful game lets you test your memory
skills (c). PEARL _ 93-Demo version of Super Dark Pfcarl 3D
game with 10 levels. HTU-“Highscore Terminal Utility” main¬
tains your high scores in your favorite video games.
#877: Second GEA Basic Manual. 3rd Edition. A collection of ex¬
ample code and text files that will help you with GFA Basic.
All files compressed with ZIP.
#878: Binkleyterm. First full release of BinkleyTerm ST in¬
cludes the Binkley program, docs, and optomized high speed
serial routines.
#879: Utility #28: A host of small utilities provided by Atari
Explore Online. AFMT ALASPEC, BIT, BITMASTR, BLKOUT,
BOMB, BRDLFRMT C0L0REMU, COPYCART, CPB00T, DISKDOUB,
DSKFIL20, F11GEM, FASTER2, FCPY _ III, FIXDISK, FLEXCOPY,
FLIP, FMTUTIL, FORMATTP, KILLDRVB, KNUTSOFT, MUTATE, PC-
FORMAT, PD _ QUICK, SALVAGE, SPECSTUF, STDUP, STMIR0R2,
SUPER, TASKCOPY, UNFORMAT UNHIDER.
#880: Utility #29: More utilities provided by AEO. BELLTST2,
B_B00T, CDC220, DECOMPRE, DF _ SUITE, DISKSCAN,
DSKMAP, DSKSPEED, DSKSWICH, FASTFIND, FF, FOLDRSRT,
GCLOCK, HDDIRECT, HOWBOOT, ICONES, KBD, LOAD _ INF,
MAKE512, MAPMEM, MEMCHECK, MEMFREE, MEMTEST,
MINIVIEW, RESET, RSC_VIEW, SEL_PR0G, 70S_VERS.
#881: Utility #30: Still more utilities from AEO plus others.
ARDVARK, AUTO _ SET, BKITE110, BOOTSIE, CLEO, CPP2,
JOSHUA, SDDFR _ 12, SHORTBIN, SINF158, SPLITIT, SUPR-
SHUF, TIMECODE, TVST15, UNDOUB, UNIX2D0S, UNIXFLOP,
VECSHOW, WO
#882: Shocked -Mono German shareware game. Manipulate
the marble to get a hold of hearts in each level, avoiding the
traps and monsters along the way. One or two-player mode.
100 levels, with an extra 100 levels in two-player mode.
#883: Atari Works No.4: AWHP3ENV-template for printing ad¬
dresses onto standard size envelopes to an HPinp printer, us¬
ing Print Merge in Works. AW_R0TAT-Text rotation in Atari-
Works. AW_HMINV-AtariWorks Home Inventory Database
template and tutorial. AWNOIOMP-How to print #10 Envelopes
on the Hewlett Packard LaserJet 4 MP. AW_FNFNT-17 Cala¬
mus fonts converted to GEM fonts for use with AW.
CN _ DATA-Includes 1993 CN index, Atari vendors, Atari retail
stores, and CN Library.
#884: Marcel V2.2-The Marcel Word Processor is now Share¬
ware! Marcel v2.2 is packed with new features like paragraph
sorting and line centering, PostScript output, revamped print
options, improved text insertion, to name but a few.
April 1994
#885: Turbo BBS & HSModem. Turbo Board ST, Shareware VI. 0,
by William Miller. Here is a full-featured bulletin board
system including everything you need to crate and run your
own BBS. HSMODEM is the modular serial fix/serial port
accelerator for all ST(e)/Mega ST(e)/TT/Falcon machines.
#886: 2X81 Emulator. This is V2. 1 of an emulator program for
the legendary Sinclair ZX81 homecomputer of the year 1981.
It should work on all Atari computers of the ST(E)/TT series.
The emulator needs no hardware support, nevertheless nearly
everything works and looks like on the original ZX81.
#88 7: Euler. Euler is a full-featured rival for the famous (and
expensive) engineering program called Mathematica, while at
the same time offering even more power in some major ways.
Runs on all Ataris.
#888: The Printing Press, v.3.03 is an excellent mono-only
program that will allow you to print out Letterhead,
Envelopes (with both address and return address, and a
graphic!), two types of disk labels, banners, and cards.
Includes drivers for 9 and 24-pin printers. Geneva and ST/STe
compatible.
#889: Utility #31 . Two in One archive shell, vl.03 .
Nice-looking archive shell for all types of archivers.
Shareware from Germany (translated to English). Ocultar
v. 3.01b is a shareware AUTO folder program that will protect
your hard disk from unauthorized access. ST/STe/TT
compatible. Profile vl.5 is a superb "sysinfo" type utility by
Mark Baines. Not too fancy, but the level of detail it displays
about the ’innards’ of your machine is unsurpassed. Freeware
from the UK.
#890: ConNect. Here is the latest version (2.46) of the CoNnect
terminal emulator. This version has improved online help,
faster transfers, etc. Still with internal x/y/zmodem/kermit,
VT52/VT100/VT102/VT220/Tek4014, multitasking. Supports
ALL ST/TT/Falcon modes.
CN PD/Shareware Disks
$4 each
10 or more: $3.50 each
CN disks are, generally, double-sided. Add $1 for every 5
disks for postage and handling. Order disks from CN
Library, 122 N. Johnson Rd., Sterling, VA 20164. You can
charge your order using your VISA or MC card by calling
(703) 450-4761. Note: DOM disks are $5 each.
CN DataBasement Special
DataBascment Software’s Shareware Registration Deal is
now permanent! Receive the full registered versions of 5
share programs for $30: Die Blitzschnell Hard Drive
Dcfragmentcr/Optimizcr (GEM and TTP versions); Kitty
Lock; Volume Utility; 5-of-a-Kind; and Euchre.
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 21
Graphic Cards
Crazy Dots ll and Cyrel Sunrise
RunnintfOutljf Ram by David Barkin
Readers may not be aware of my recent promotion to
head the New York branch of the Current Notes Hardware
Testing Division. Armed with a $500,000 budget, I’ve decided
to dedicate my first article to graphic cards. Taking advantage
of the prestige of this new appointment, I ordered 500 Crazy
Dot boards and 500 Cyrel boards. I also took advantage of my
friend Cliff Steward and borrowed his NOVA Board . The first,
and of course, most important, test was the torture test. How
much physical abuse could these boards take and still run? I’m
sorry to report that of the 998 boards subjected to this test,
none survived. A couple of the Cyrel cards did manage to
make it through the “five little kids with sledge hammer test,”
while the Crazy Dots boards all shattered into a million
pieces. But even the Cyrel Cards failed the Oxyacetylene Cut¬
ting Torch Test.
I was unable to put the NOVA through these tests be¬
cause, when Cliff observed my testing methods, and the
special, “Battery Acid Dip Test,” that I had reserved for his
board, he backed out of lending me his card. No, I am sad to
relate that this kind of data from the NOVA was not done in
CN’s up-to-date lab, but was phoned in by Cliff from his
Long Island home.
If you followed last month’s column, you are probably
aware of the review of the NOVA board. This month I will
cover the Crazy Dots Board , distributed by Gribnif Software,
and the Cyrel Board , sold and manufactured by Cybercube
Research. In the tables of data, I will also include results from
the NOVA Board , distributed by Lexicor Software.
Introducing the Boards
To begin with, both the Cyrel and the Crazy Dots Boards
are designed to fit entirely within your computer. With the TT
and Mega Ste, this is done by removing the access plate from
the VME slot on your machine, inserting the boards, and
locking the boards into place with the integral plate and
screws. Since, on the TT, this also means removing and dis¬
connecting the two serial ports, one result is that these serial
ports are gone. If you want them restored, it’s possible to cut
new holes in the back of your computer and mount the ports
in the new location. Unless you know what you’re doing, bet¬
ter hire a technician to do this job. With the Mega Ste you
only eliminate one of the serial ports, while with the Mega
ST, the board is connected internally to the Mega bus expan¬
sion slot. At any rate, once done with the installation of the
board, your machine presents a finished appearance. With the
Crazy Dots board you now have a new monitor port and an
auxiliary expansion port, reserved for future hardware
releases. The Cyrel Card gives you one monitor port and a
LAN expansion port.
A word here on the instructions that come with these
boards. The Crazy Dots Board comes with a full printed
manual. While short, being only 30 pages, it’s quite complete.
Aside from telling you how to install the board and software,
it gives comprehensive instructions for the accessory, and
other programs that come with the package. The manual that
comes with the Cyrel Card is really meant for people with a
technical background. I really found it inadequate. There is a
comprehensive manual , but it’s on the disk, in the form of ex¬
tensive “read me” files. When I say extensive, I am talking
about hundreds of pages. These pages are divided into
sections with such clear and helpful titles as “Xbios
parameters” or “Vidimix8 Doc.” These last comments
perhaps reflect an unnecessary “turning of the screw” on
Cybercube. There are titles like “Overview Doc” etc, but the
point of this criticism is that I would much prefer a printed
manual.
The saving grace for the installation of the Cyrel Board
is the install program. This is a program for complete
morons, taking you by the hand, step-by-step, with cute little
pictures showing you exactly how to install the board, and fi¬
nally, this program will install the software. I appreciate this
approach to installing expensive pieces of hardware, where
the fear of mistakes has often resulted in gigantic visible ul¬
cers, so large and painful they assumed a life of their own.
This is, in fact, how I acquired my dog.
I became intimate with this program because it has one
little bug. When I arrived at the point where you install the
software (clicking through 30 or more steps to reach this
point) I would get the message, “I/O Error,” and the program
would crash. After running this program 20 times, it started
to look cruel and vindictive instead of cute and cuddly. It
turns out that the program expects that it will not find an Auto
Folder on your hard drive. If it finds such a folder, the pro¬
gram will crash. If no such folder exists, the program will
happily create its own, and load in all the necessary, and for
that matter, unnecessary software it can find.
Operating the Boards
Once the boards are installed, they take two different ap¬
proaches to operating. Before I describe this, let me say that
when you purchase a graphics card you must have either a
second monitor or a monitor switch! While your main moni¬
tor is connected to the board, you can still plug in a monitor
to your regular ST/TT monitor port. Since many programs
Page 22
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
will not run with either board, in many resolutions, a monitor
switch becomes a necessity. A good switch will cost $40,
tops, and should not be regarded as a handicap.
The Crazy Dots Board depends on software to boot your
computer and change the resolution of the board. The Cyrel
Card , while still dependent on software, uses re-programable
Eprom chips to select different resolutions. What does this
mean, in practice? Both boards will automatically boot in the
last selected resolution . If you are working in 800 by 600
with 256 colors, then the next time you re-boot, this will be¬
come the default. But the boards differ in the following way.
With the Crazy Dots Board , holding down the space key dur¬
ing boot-up will give you access to the management program.
Here you can change the resolution and colors that the com¬
puter will boot in. Holding down the escape key will bypass
the board entirely and you will boot in your regular ST/TT
resolution. You can then either turn your monitor switch to
your normal monitor port, or if you have a second monitor,
turn your head in the direction of the second monitor.
The Cyrel Card has no such accessible management pro¬
gram. The computer boots in the last selected resolution. If
you wish to change resolution, you must do so after you boot.
This is done by running a separate program and selecting your
resolution from there. This is not as difficult as it sounds. My
solution was to move this program to the desktop, move the
folder that contains the various possible resolutions to the
desktop and save my new desktop. This assumes you have ei¬
ther TOS 2. xx or 3.xx ROMS. When I want to change resolu¬
tions, I just drop one of these resolutions onto the “Xchange”
program and this reprograms the eprom chip on the Cyrel
Card . The Cyrel also comes with a utility program to make
these changes on the fly. I couldn’t make head or tail of this
utility and, even if I did, it doesn’t seem greatly superior to
the method I use. I rarely change resolutions, anyway.
There is also a program to reprogram the default factory
settings. You can access the normal computer resolution by
holding down both shift keys during the boot process, and you
will be presented with a simple dialogue. “Install M16 Board:
Yes/No.” If you hit “n” the board is ignored and the computer
boots in normal resolution. If “y” is your response, then you
are presented with two choices. You can either select the pre¬
vious default or you can choose the eprom default settings that
the board either came with or that you later modified. In
other words, when you boot the Cyrel Card , you have a
choice or two resolutions or the normal computer resolution.
I prefer the Crazy Dots method, but in practice, it really does¬
n’t make that much of a difference. Why do I say this?
The plain fact of the matter is that these boards are valu¬
able in running programs that can take advantage of the higher
resolutions. Quite a few programs can not. I run my Cyrel
Board in 800 by 600 with 256 colors. The most common
change I make is to disable the board entirely. The Cyrel , un¬
like the Crazy Dots , has no monochrome mode, but what if it
did? I would still have to reboot the computer to access the
monochrome mode of either board. The monochrome mode
on the Crazy Dots, as long as the resolution is the same as the
programs I want to run, is compatible with just about every
program I’ve run. But there’s no benefit in running in uCrazy
Dots monochrome” as opposed to normal ST High. Yes, the
screen is larger, but the screen is fuzzier. The screen redraws
are fast, but not as fast as if I run Mirp Nine (the software
screen accelerator). In other words, who cares? Either way, I
have to reboot. These boards have to be judged on their com¬
patibility in higher resolution and their speed in higher resolu¬
tion. If you’re not interested in the type of program that ben¬
efits from more colors or higher screen resolution, then a
graphics card is just a big waste of money.
I must admit that the NO Vi Board’s accompanying pro¬
gram, Resolution Switcher ; although not compatible with eve¬
rything, did allow me to use some monochrome programs
while I was running in higher resolutions and a greater
number of colors. Of course, since I couldn’t get this board to
work properly in these higher resolutions or colors, this
ability is academic. Which brings us to the next question, just
what resolution and color choices do these boards offer?
Resolution and Color
The Cyrel comes with predefined choices and no way to
alter these choices. You are presented with 86 different files.
Each file represents both a different resolution and a different
number of colors and a different monitor. There are a number
of repititions of colors and resolutions. 800 by 600 is repeated
13 times, with each file having a slightly different name. At
least one of these files will run on your monitor.
Keep in mind that different monitors have different capa¬
bilities. Selecting the wrong choice can terminate your moni¬
tor. If you don’t have the specifications of your particular
monitor, Cybercube thoughtfully provides a list of over 300
monitors and their exact specifications. When I realized how
this system operates, I created a separate folder containing the
files compatible with my monitor.
There are choices galore for everyone, ranging from 128
by 400 to 1600 by 1200 in 256 color mode. The other color
choice offered by the Cyrel is 24-bit mode (16.7 million col¬
ors). Once again, the choices are enormous, ranging from 128
by 400 to 1024 by 512.
Keep in mind that these are non-interlaced modes.
Higher resolutions are possible in interlaced modes. Interlac¬
ing is a way of getting around the limitations of your monitor
by constantly redrawing each line of your screen when you
are in modes that are larger then your monitor is capable of
displaying. Interlacing produces a constant, subtle flickering.
I have enough problems with my eyes as it is, and as a gesture
of utter disregard for potentials, I disregard interlaced modes.
If you feel that your vision is impervious to harm, you can go
as high as 2000 by 1000 in interlaced mode.
One might think that the Cyrel , by offering only two col¬
or modes, has a great handicap. Such is not the case. My
working mode is 256 colors and true color (24-bit) is for final
proofing. As I said before, you have to reboot the computer to
change modes, so you might as well reboot in normal mode if
you need monochrome or 4-bit color.
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 23
As for as I can determine, the Cyrel is as compatible in
24-bit mode as in 256-color mode. There is a patch program
that must be run for 24-bit operation to eliminate color incon¬
sistencies with some programs, like Studio Photo, but every¬
thing I ran, with the exception of Retouche , worked flaw¬
lessly. Also included are patch programs for Calamus SL and
Outline III in 256-color modes. I found, after a while, that
these programs ran fine without these patches. Go figure.
The Crazy Dots Board allows choices of different colors
from monochrome, 4-bit, (16 colors) 8-bit (256 colors) and
15-bit (32,000 colors). Software is under development to run
the board in 24-bit color. The Crazy Dots Board has half the
memory of the Cyrel Card so that the upper limits of resolu¬
tion are less. In 15-bit color, the maximum screen resolution
is 800 by 600, while with 256 colors, it’s possible to go up to
1024 by 768. When true color software is developed, the maxi¬
mum resolution will be 640 by 480. In monochrome mode,
it’s possible to go as high as 1664 by 1200.
Unlike the Cyrel Card , the number of resolutions is
limited to a dozen or so pre-prepared monitors. Once again, if
you pick the wrong monitor, your monitor’s second hand
value can drop significantly. To deal with this problem, Grib-
nif includes a program to create your own monitor resolu¬
tions. This program, the VMG Program, is thoroughly ex¬
plained by the manual. Within an hour, assuming you know
the specifications of your monitor, you will be up and runn¬
ing. Cybercube intends to release a similar program shortly,
but while I appreciate this, it’s not as important as it sounds.
The Cyrel Card already comes with an abundance of
selections.
One major problem with using the Crazy Dots Board is
that, when running in colors above 256, a number of pro¬
grams would not run properly. These include Calamus SL,
Outline III and Studio Photo. The included demo versions of
Chagall and Papillon ran flawlessly in higher resolutions, but
these programs are unavailable at this time and, even if they
were, what about SL1 One can only hope that Gribnif, as well
as releasing software to run in 24-bit, will release patches to
run SL and Outline as well as others.
What About Speed?
At the present time, there are no programs capable of
testing the speeds of these boards with any consistant
accuracy. Results from Quick Index gave wild measurements.
Originally, I laboriously assembled a number of tables of
data. These tables bore no relationship to the actual results of
using these boards. I put so much work into making them,
and they filled up so much space, that I almost included them
anyway. Finally, just before I sent this article out, I discovered
the NVDI testing program. I had already sent the Crazy Dots
Board back to Gribnif, but I did manage to get a copy for
Cliff, so that he could test the NOVA.
In 640 by 480 by 256 colors, the Cyrel redrew screens
and scrolled slightly faster then the Crazy Dots and slightly
slower then the NOVA. This difference in speed was hardly
perceptable. At that resolution, all the boards compared
favorably with TT Medium running with Warp Nine.
However, just before I returned the Crazy Dots Board to
Gribnif, I tried the “text mode” of the Crazy Dots Board. The
Crazy Dots allows two methods of running the board. Text
Mode and Graphics Mode. The manual seemed to imply that
you should choose “text” for programs like Word Perfect and
“graphics” for programs like Calamus. I just follow
directions. Running the Gribnif Board in “text mode” caused
a 50 percent leap in speed. Thus, in any 256-color option, the
Crazy Dots Board was clearly the fastest. Unfortunately this
did not hold true in 15-bit mode, where choosing “text” had
no effect. I should add that running programs that I think of as
“graphics” programs did not seem to faze the Gribnif Board
at all. The Cyrel was noticably faster then the Crazy Dots
Board in true color mode and was much faster then the NOVA.
Extra’s and Problems: The Crazy Dots Board
The Crazy Dots Board comes with the capability of fu¬
ture expansions. Genlock potential, color and resolution up¬
grades are all possibilities built into the board. There is, how¬
ever, no release date for these potentials, at least as far as I
know. The only real improvement promised for quick release
is the software to run in 24-bit mode. Along with the software
to get your board up and running, there is a very useful acces¬
sory program. This program, as well as giving you the power
to fine tune the color display on your monitor, has one really
useful function. Many VGA monitors do not come with the
ability to control both the size and position of the display. In
other words, booting in different resolutions may leave your
display high and to the right, or all the way to the left, etc.
Using this accessory/program, you can center your picture
and save this information so that each time you reboot, the
display will always be perfectly placed. Another advantage of
this capability, even for those people with adjustable monitors,
is that when you bypass the card your normal resolution will
be properly displayed.
Another capacity of the Crazy Dots Board is “Virtual
Screen.” If you boot in 800 by 600 and select the virtual
screen option, for example, you could have an actual screen of
800 by 600, but only 640 by 480 is visible. As the mouse or
cursor moves to the edge of your display, the screen shifts the
picture. Both Gribnif and Cybercube regard this option as im¬
portant; personally, I find it disconcerting and annoying and
couldn’t care less. Some people will no doubt appreciate this
option. Using virtual screen acts like setting a zoom level.
The Cyrel Card does not have this capability, although they
are about to release it. I have no use for this option.
When I first plugged in the Crazy Dots Board I had trou¬
ble accessing the management program. In addition to this
problem, after booting, the desktop and programs that I ran
would often display garbage, which is to say, illegible charac¬
ters and other display problems. The problem turned out to be
my 1CD Professional hard drive program. Gribnif gave me
two fixes that would work. I could either run my original
Atari Hard drive software or use the optional NVDI screen ac¬
celerator program. Reinstalling the Atari driver cured my
Page 24
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
problem. Users who have the standard version of ICD ’s soft¬
ware should also have no problem. I had also tried this fix
with the NOVA Card , but without any improvement.
Finally, although Gribnif never sent me a copy, they are
selling, as an option for $99, the NVDI Screen Accelerator.
This version of the software will only work with the Gribnif
card. While I didn’t have the opportunity to test this software,
I’m sure it will speed the performance of this already fast
hardware. It will also eliminate the problems of people who
use ICD ’s Pro hard drive system.
This little experiment with using Atari’s hard drive sys¬
tem also taught me a new trick. Up until now I was under the
impression that using this software would not allow me to use
my Epson color scanner. But in the intervening time since I
first ran into this problem, I installed terminators on the
mother board of my TT. With these terminators installed, the
Atari software allowed me to use my scanner without prob¬
lems. This installation of terminators is an interesting topic for
a future article, hopefully by Dave Troy, since I really don’t
understand what the heck they terminate. I can repeat the ver¬
bal description. SCSI devices form a chain, each end of this
chain must have terminators, little chips that end the chain.
What does this mean? By all the known laws of relativity, if
something is plugged into your SCSI port then that device
must be turned on for the system to operate. Any computer re¬
pair person will tell you that. But , if terminators are installed
on my TT mother board, the SCSI device can be on or off and
my computer doesn’t even blink.
The Cyrel Sunrise Card
The Cyrel Card has numerous built-in expansion capa¬
bilities. Genlock and video control hardware are available.
There is an optional adapter, which will allow you to plug in
up to four Cyrel Cards and link them together. One of the
most interesting facets of buying the Cyrel is the capability of
using standard IBM serial mice or Summagraphic Compatible
graphic pads. I’ve always wanted a graphics pad. My main
reason for not getting one was that if you plug in a graphics
pad, you have to unplug your mouse. It’s often been said that
drawing with a mouse is like trying to draw with a block of
soap. On the other hand, operating a regular program with a
graphics pad is like trying to wash with a pencil eraser.
Cybercubes mouse/graphic pad manager, allows you to use
both your Atari mouse and the graphic's pad at the same
time! This potential puts a graphics pad high on my buying
agenda. This program is provided free with the Cyrel Card ,
but can be purchased separately from Cybercube and does not
need the Cyrel Card , or any other card, in order to work
The Cyrel comes with an accessory program to control
colors. This gives much more extensive control over color
then the Crazy Dots. You can load, save and create new color
palattes; 35 palettes come with this accessory, but I’m not
sure if this isn’t overkill. It’s probably much more useful if
you’re also taking advantage of the video capabilities of the
card. There is also an accessory to control the operation of
the card. Using various control parameters you can set up
various options to make non-compatible programs compat¬
ible. I was able to make Touch-up and Convector Professional
run in resolutions they weren’t meant for, but I found that it
was easier to simply boot my computer in a normal ST/TT
resolution and not bother with setting up the accessory. Cy¬
bercube has just released a monochrome package. I intend to
try this package out, but how useful it will be, I’m not sure.
The only real lack of the Cyrel software is no VMG pro¬
gram like the one that comes with Crazy Dots . As I said be¬
fore, Cybercube presents so many choices that such an option
is not a necessity as it is with Gribnif s package. But even so,
I’d like to have it.
I also want the ability to position my screen via software
controls as opposed to hardware. I use a Nec 3FGx monitor,
which has hardware control over screen position, so software
control is not crucial. If I didn’t use this monitor, my screams
would be audible in Canada. Cybercube promises a quick re¬
lease of such software. This brings up a big advantage of the
Cyrel Card. This is a Canadian company. The board is manu¬
factured in Canada. This provides a quicker response, quicker
updates and someone close by to complain to. Improved soft¬
ware drivers are constantly being created. At some point this
should result in quicker performance. As is, the board is very
fast, if not up to the Crazy Dots speed. The above is not
meant as a criticism of Gribnifs support. The support is
excellent, but they get their updates and hardware from
Germany. This gives them less control of the entire process.
The Bottom Line
I hope that this article is giving you some idea of what to
expect from a graphics card. This is a tool for professional
work. If you’re doing word processing it may very well come
in handy with word processors that can take advantage of
larger screen sizes. This seems like a lot of money to spend
just to see a higher proportion of a text only program. Even
the speedy Crazy Dots Board will not improve much, if any,
over software accelerators like Warp Nine.
So why buy a board? For desktop publishing, video,
CAD, graphics and related programs. Running these programs
in higher screen resolutions and/or colors has become a ne¬
cessity to me. It’s much like getting your first hard drive; you
don’t miss it until you use it. At 256 colors, photos spring into
life. At 16 million colors, you are looking at immense blow
ups, the details of which will take your breath away. With a
slew of image processing programs, either just released or
about to be released, these boards will go a long way in
making full use of them.
The same can be said about video. A program like Cala¬
mus SL in 800 by 600 mode, runs much faster. By this, I don’t
mean that the program actually runs faster, I mean I run the
program much faster! Instead of constantly changing my zoom
mode, I use only two zoom levels. At half page, I can actually
read the text. The improvement in speed of use is phenom¬
enal. Let this be a warning, the whole process of using a
graphics cards is highly addictive. You might ask why don’t I
run my board in even higher screen resolutions? My monitor
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 25
is simply too small. In order to take full advantage of 1024 by
768, I would need a 15-inch or better monitor. Running at
these higher resolutions can produce text on menu options
that is not easily visible. If I had a larger monitor (someday,
someday), this would not be a problem.
Video or graphics work in 15-bit or 24-bit color shows
me exactly what my visual display will look like. This raises
the question, “What is the difference between 15-bit or 24-bit
mode?” With a 15-inch monitor, like mine, (actually 13-inch)
there is no, or very little, difference in how a full color pic¬
ture appears. On the other hand, I may someday, as I hope,
purchase a larger monitor. At that point, there is a difference.
I ran next door to the neighboring design studio with a 24-bit
TIF file and had them display the file in both 15-bit and
24-bit. I could, indeed, clearly see the difference on their big
17 and 21-inch displays.
In the interest of science, I constantly try out this kind of
thing with my neighbors’ Mac’s. They let me get away with
this for three reasons. First, because I’m such a nice guy, sec¬
ond, because they’re a bunch or weenies and easy to intimi¬
date, and third, because the owner of the building hired me to
take care of his heating system. As a shocking coincidence,
when they refused to let me take advantage of their comput¬
ers, the heat went off in the building. This was in early Janu¬
ary when the temperature in New York went below zero. Eth¬
nic and racial differences between people tend to disappear at
these temperatures. Yes, as it turns out, whether you’re white
or black, or any shade in between, you just look a bright
chrome blue at these temperatures. In fact, even sexual differ¬
ences are hard to determine, due to the fact that bodies tend to
be a blur of confusing motion.
Overall, this question of color should only be a relatively
small factor in determining which board to purchase. But the
Cyrel Board has a big edge because it was capable of running
every 24-bit capable program I threw at it. This could not be
said for the Crazy Dots Board. It could not run Calamus SL,
Outline III , or Studio Photo . Although the NOVA could run
Calamus , it couldn’t run Outline III or Studio Photo. If you’re
looking to do professional level work, this becomes a major
issue. Running in 256-color mode is quite spectacular and ad¬
equate for many jobs, but for professional level work, higher
color modes are a necessity.
There is not a dramatic price difference between these
two boards. The Crazy Dots has a list price of $799, while the
Cyrel lists for $995. You can expect discounts on the Crazy
Dots Board from retailers; even so, they are both expensive.
Gribnif is one of my favorite companies. It seems a shame that
their fine board has so many incompatibilities with 24-bit
software in true color mode. This is especially true since they
were kind enough and confident enough to lend me one of
their boards. If the only factor you’re looking for is speed,
then the Crazy Dots was the clear winner in 256 colors or
under, although all the boards were fast
enough.
Cybercube has a written policy
where, in addition to a one-year guaran¬
tee, you have 10 days to change your
mind after receiving their board.
Gribnif has a similar policy. Lexicons
policy is that, once you’ve purchased the
board, you can not return it, even if the
board is incompatible with your com¬
puter. They guarantee that the product
will work with their computer.
Crazy Dots U, $795. Gribnif
Software, RO. Box 779, Northhampton
MA. 01061. Tel: (413)247-5620, Fax:
(413) 247-5622.
Cyrel Sunrise , $995. Cybercube
Research Limited, 126 Grenadier
Crescent, Thornhill ON,. L4J 7V7,
Canada. Tel: 905-882-0294. Also
available from DMC Publishing, 2800
John Street, Unit #10, Markham,
Ontario, Canada L3R OE2. Tel: (416)
479-1991; Fax: (416) 479-1882.
NOVA CARD , $529 + $40 shipping.
Lexicor Software Inc , 1726 Francisco
Street, Berkeley CA. 94703. Tel: (510)
848-7621; Fax: (510) 848-7613.
Table 1. Cyrel Board Running in 640 by 480 Screen Resolution
NVDI Test
1.2
ST High
ST High
(Warp Nine)
TT Medium
TT Medium
Warp Nine
Cyrel
256
Cyrel
16M
Graphics
188
807
67
212
174
121
Dialogue
395
533
264
313
366
206
Table 1.
NOVA Board Running in 640 by 480 Screen Resolution
NVDI Test
1.2
ST High
ST High
(Warp Nine)
TT Medium
TT Medium
Warp Nine
NOVA
256
NOVA
16M
Graphics
188
803
67
210
236
139
Dialogue
395
529
264
312
305
126
Table 1. Explaining The Data: The NVDI testing program uses the normal ST
computer as its base line. Thus, a measurement of 200 percent means twice as fast
as a regular ST. None of these measurements have anything to do with the process¬
ing speed of the computer. The boards had no effect on these elements. The data re¬
flects screen redraws and scrolling only. Data From the NOVA was not done with
my computer, thus the normal computer figures differ slightly. Although I no longer
had the Crazy Dots board to test with, it ran 50 percent faster then the Cyrel in 256
color mode and about 10 percent slower in true color mode, in its “text mode”
option. All the boards lost about 10 percent in 800 by 600 mode. The measurement
“dialogue” seems to be more important then graphics redraw. It certainly had more
of a dramatic impact then you would think from the name.
Page 26
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
WO TE S
by Lou Rocha
April showers in your neck of the woods? Person¬
ally, I would be happy with anything that doesn’t need
to be shovelled! Cabin fever is rampant and even my
computers are begging for a change of venue. Speak¬
ing of changes, this month we have some new items to
share with you. Around GEnie visits another new RT,
Gordon Meyer makes his first contribution to the li¬
brary corner; Terry Quinn returns with a couple of
new Hot Topics and Brian Harvey presents a new fea¬
ture for GEnie Notes-CAT’s Eye View. Take your Cur¬
rent Notes out to the backyard and relax with us.
Around GEnie
The FAX RT
!GEnie>
Continuing on our tour of relatively new services
on GEnie, this month’s visit stops in the FAX RT. For
those of you just getting in from the outback of
Australia, Facsimile machines have become nearly as
common as cellular telephones for the small business
and for many homes. Although the prices are falling
almost as fast as hard drives, some people still don’t
own their own FAX machine. Enter GEnie FAX Ser¬
vice!
GE Mail to FAX will allow you to send text mes¬
sages to Group III facsimile (FAX) machines. Here is
some information on how to send send a FAX via GE
Mail.
Tb get to GEnie FAX, type “FAX” at any system
prompt. This brings you to the front door of GEnie
FAX where the FAX Menu is ready to serve you:
1. About GE Hail to FAX
2. GE Hail to FAX Rates
3. GE Hail to FAX Country Codes & Zones
4. GE Hail to FAX Instructions
5. Connon Questions about GE Hail to FAX
6. Send a FAX Hessage
7. Check Delivery Status of FAX
8. List Non-Delivery Notices
Select #2 to get an overview of the rates for this
service. You can FAX anywhere in North America for
$1.15 per page. Rates to other destinations range up
to $6.50 per page and you can even send a FAX to a
ship at sea for $25.00 per page!
lb get a very helpful tutorial on the use of this
service select menu item #4. Four pages of text pro¬
vide very clear examples on how to use the service.
You can also send a FAX direct from GEnie e-mail. A
FAX address can be entered at the TO: or CC: prompt
and be formatted as follows:
TO: JOHN SHITH/i-30i-25i-642i@FAX#
NOTE: JOHN SMITH is the receiver’s name; 1 is
the country code (U.S. destination); 301 is the area or
city code; 251-6421 is the extension; @FAX# is the
name of the connector system (it will always be called
FAX#)
You also have the ability to check if your FAX has
been delivered by selecting item #7 on the FAX menu.
It will bring up a list similar to the following example:
FAX
Delivery Status Check
Queue# Iten Fron To Sent Subject
1 1234567 PAH FAX# 90/12/27 Test
Upon entering the list number, the following in¬
formation will be displayed about your FAX message:
Status of iten: 1234567
Sent 92/12/27 09:44
PAH listed 92/12/27 09:44
JOHN SHITH/1-301-251-6421 GFAX# 92/12/27
10:15 delivered
This has been a very brief tour of GEnie FAX
services. There are other features that you can ex¬
plore and, of course, some helpful sysops around in
case you need assistance. The FAX RT-one more rea¬
son to come to GEnie!
RTC Highlights
by Brian Harvey
Welcome again to another month of Real Time
Conferences (RTCs) on GEnie! For a change this
month, I will be brief, which will probably amaze Lou
and anyone who regularly reads this section.
First, I would like to remind everyone about the
Programming RTCs held the first and third Thurs¬
days of each month. Again, you don’t need to be an ex¬
pert with code to get the most out of these RTCs.
Also, more goes on than just coding, such as the cam¬
araderie of talking with other programmers of all lev¬
els. Plus, it’s a good place to network concerning oth¬
ers’ programs. For example, Mike Allen was in contact
April, 1994
Current Notes
Page 27
with Karsten Isakovic, the author of SysMon and in¬
formed everyone at the 17th February RTC that 1.0.9
is in beta test. Mike stated that Karsten will no
longer allow SysMon to be uploaded onto BBSs. Sys¬
Mon remains as shareware and costs $40 for non-com¬
mercial use and $80 for commercial use.
Lou Rocha opened this month’s Dateline Atari
RTC on March 4, 1994 with extending his condolences
to the family of comedian John Candy who passed
away in his sleep that morning. John may not have
been an Atari user, but in this writer’s opinion, he
was one of the most underrated comedians in the
business. His talent will be deeply missed.
This RTC had some special guests in the form of
four “new” (online) Atari personnel; Tbm Gillen, Hank
Cappa, Joe Sousa, and Faran Thomason. Tbm Gillen
(GEnie address TOM.GILLEN), is the Software Test
Group leader at Atari. Tbm has been with Atari since
back when Warner owned the company. He has always
been involved with the Software Test side of things
with some hardware testing. Joe Sousa and Hank
Cappa are two of Tbm’s testers. The Test Department
consists, not only of play testing, but also of providing
game ideas and enhancement suggestions. They focus
on the Jaguar but still are testing LYNX games. For
FALCON software, testing has been moved to the
United Kingdom. Faran Thomason (GEnie mail ad¬
dress F.Thomason) is a former tester.
Bob then went on and gave out the GEnie ad¬
dresses of other new online personnel who couldn’t
make it that night. This list included Hans Jacobsen
(H.JACOBSEN), Sean Patten (SEAN.PATTEN) Tfed
Tahquechi (TAHQUECHI), and Susan McBride
(S.G.MCBRIDE).
Remember, it pays to attend these RTCs since
Bob made a special offer to celebrate the release of
Tempest 2000 for Jaguar. Sorry, the offer is over now,
but maybe next time.
Of course, the big news is still the Jaguar, with
the national rollout being very close to occurring. Bob
mentioned that they have 48 new Jaguar developers,
bringing the total to 86. However, not all the news
was Jaguar news. There are more TTs being shipped
and information was presented concerning the 040
board for the Falcon. Also, Atari is creating a new
co-op program in place to help dealers advertise their
Atari products.
I asked Bob about the BPS (Black Page Syn¬
drome) on later versions of Atari Works (AW) and he
stated “Pradip is deeply concerned about the Black
Page Syndrome and is hard at work on it, but you are
correct ... it is not his number one priority.” However,
even after a RTC, news can be spread! Pradip stopped
by Bob’s office and told Bob he thought he may have
fixed the BPS! In the meantime, Bob is talking with
his bosses to get a earlier version of AW.
Bob was asked about Atari’s cash flow for sup¬
porting the Jaguar and he commented that Sam
TVamiel mentioned that Atari is planning to go to the
equity markets to raise cash. This was planned even
as far back as the November Jaguar launch.
Well, that’s it for another month! Good Atari com¬
puting and don’t forget to drop in sometime to the
RTCs!
CAT’s Eye View
by Brian H. Harvey
Hi, everyone! This section is a small occasional
column that will focus on one or more categories in
the Atari RoundTable (RT). Hence, the name of this
column. It will be only a brief look at the category
and is in no way meant to be definitive nor provide a
repeat of messages in the category. (Categories are the
way thematically similar sections of an RT are organ¬
ized.) It is aimed to be a bird’s, or should I say, CAT’s
eye view of the category. (I will try to keep the puns to
a minimum.)
What better place to start this column than high¬
lighting the CodeHead Product Support Category,
which is category 32 in the Atari RT! These versatile
programmers, musician, developers and loyal Atari
users frequent the RT everyday. John (GEnie address
J.EIDSVOOG1) and Charles (CODEHEAD) with
Tbmas (MUSE) not only provide online daily support
for the simplest or most complex questions, but also
talk about what they have in the works and the
chances of one of their products being upgraded
shortly. Having them online not only means quick so¬
lutions to your problems, but also provides a medium
for you to pass on your compliments and perhaps even
a constructive criticism, though their products are
rock solid!
If you haven’t heard of the CODEHEADS, then
you, obviously, are not an Atari user. However, just in
case, here is a list of ten of the more than 37 topics
they have in their category:
ARC Shell
Ask the CodeHeads
Calligrapher-the Writer's Tool!
CodeHead Quarters BBS
CodeHead Technical Info
CodeHead Update Information
HotWire
MaxiFile
MegaPaint Professional
MIDI Spy, the Background MIDI Recorder
Mouse-Ka-Mania II
MultiDesk
Troubleshooting
Warp 9, the Accelerator
Page 28
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
Were you counting? OK, more than ten, but I can’t
just name ten. They have so many great topics and it
shows by the traffic they receive daily. Of course, since
they are online all the time, a search of the library
would find a ton of files with numerous updates/
patches reaching GEnie before anywhere else! This
means that most of these topics seldom go long
without traffic and when these topics reach approxi¬
mately 200 messages they are archived and placed in
the library for others to use. Why archive them? I will
give you an example from my personal experience.
Over the past two years I have bought almost every¬
thing sold by the CODEHEADS that could be of use
on my computer. When I bought Codekeys , I down¬
loaded all the messages in that topic and also the
archived files in the library. Between these two
sources, I acquired an excellent knowledge of this
product, which months of use wouldn’t supply. I saw
others’ mistakes and tricks and knew exactly what T
needed to do to make some neat Codekey files for dif¬
ferent programs.
If you don’t want to spend that much time in
reading, then you can ask a question right in any of
these topics and get answers back from both the
CODEHEADS and other users. Believe me, there are
many people who have a setup similar to yours or who
have made the same errors.
Well, that’s it for the first time with this column.
If you like it, then let us know; if you don’t, tell us
how to improve it!
ST Library
by Gordon Meyer
Gordon Meyer is one of the library sysops in the ST
RoundThble and he has joined us this month to pre¬
view one of the new files in the ST Library.
This month we’re going to focus on a file of inter¬
est to many Aladdin users, particularly those with
Falcon030 computers. But even if you haven’t yet up¬
graded to a Falcon, read on to discover what this pro¬
gram can offer to all ST users.
LQADALAD
by Keith Gerdes/Trace Technologies
LoadAlad is a utility for use with GEnie’s “front-
end” interface program, ST Aladdin . It permits Al¬
addin to address any of the serial ports on Atari’s
newer machines and also includes some features of
benefit to all Aladdin users, even if you don’t need ad¬
ditional serial port support.
The most impressive feature of LoadAlad is that
it allows TT, Mega Slfe, and Falcon users to use Al¬
addin with any of the serial ports available on these
machines. You see, Aladdin addresses the standard
ST serial port directly and doesn’t know that the
other ports are available. This means TT and Mega
Slfe users have to connect their modems to the one
specific port Aladdin knows about. And the people
who use Falcons are simply out-of-luck because the ST
serial port hardware Aladdin is looking for doesn’t ex¬
ist at all on their machines.
LoadAlad works by altering, or “patching,” Alad¬
din's serial port access routines. %u simply run
LoadAlad, which, in turn, loads, modifies, and then
runs Aladdin . All changes are done to Aladdin in
RAM so the original ALAD.PRG file is unchanged. If
you ever want to skip the LoadAlad routines, simply
run Aladdin directly.
Even if you don’t need access to the other serial
ports, you can still benefit from LoadAlad. Another
feature is that it allows you to specify a “time out”
value. If you use this feature, LoadAlad will auto¬
matically disconnect Aladdin if there hasn’t been any
modem activity for the number of minutes you specify.
GEnie will automatically do this, too, but LoadAlad
lets you decide how long of a delay you’ll tolerate, in¬
stead of letting GEnie make the decision for you.
Finally, a side-benefit of LoadAlad’s serial rou¬
tines is that you can now use other programs that ac¬
cess the serial port (such as dialing with CardFile)
even while Aladdin is loaded. As long as Aladdin isn’t
actively using the modem, other programs can have at
it, something that was nearly impossible before
LoadAlad. This alone makes LoadAlad a boon for us¬
ers of multi-tasking operating systems like Geneva.
LoadAlad support is in the ST Aladdin RT (Cat¬
egory 2 Topic 6). For a limited-time demo, download
LDALDEMO.LZH (File #330) from the ST Aladdin RT
Library. LoadAlad is shareware ($15.00); try out the
demo and then contact TVace Technologies via GEnie
mail K.GERDES to obtain a registered version.
Hot Topics
with Terry Quinn
One concern not far from every Atari user’s mind
is whether or not he is missing out on something by
not switching to another platform (most particularly
DOS/Windows) since there seems to be so much
“nifty” hardware and software available. Have all of
the “switchees” been happier as a result? To para¬
phrase John Wayne, “Not Hardly!”
EXPLORER d [] Ron [] To make room for 50-meg
word processors, I just spent three days trying to add
a Quantum 540 drive to a 486 that had a Quan¬
tum 240 already installed. This is a process that
takes about 15 minutes on the ST.
April, 1994
Current Notes
Page 29
The first day is spent learning you can’t use all of
a 540 meg hard drive on a PC (500 meg is the limit)
without a boot loadable disk driver. The “fun” part is
if you set up the drive parameter table with a drive
larger than 500 meg, even though FDISK recognizes
the larger drive, the partitioning option only recog¬
nizes the 40 meg it can’t use.
A quick trip to CompUSA to get a loadable boot
driver is taken in an attempt to be able to use the en¬
tire drive. Then another day is spent finding out it’s
not compatible with DOS 6.2. A call to “dog-patch
disk driver company” tells me the loadable boot driver
won’t work but an update is out. But the update will
cost what I just paid yesterday for the old version that
doesn’t work.
At this point, I’m starting to see the advantages
of selling hotdogs on the beach. On the third day, we
go back to the drive parameter table (why can’t it load
this from the drive boot sector anyway?) to reconfig¬
ure the drive as a 500 meg and we start to make
progress. Whoops, now it won’t boot from the new
drive until we go back and use Norton Utilities to edit
the partition table to toggle the boot bit.
Except, now, when we add the second drive back
in, the first partition pops up in the D: slot throwing
all of Window’s application paths out of kilter. Of
course, DoubleDisk freaked at its compressed parti¬
tions now being on disk two and won’t let me do hard
disk to hard disk restore. Time to re-Fdisk both drives
and load everything, yet again, from tape.
I get to go back in Saturday and let Word 6 for
Windows kick sand in my face. I think Fll bring the
Falcon along for entertainment, since I’m sure an¬
other complete re-load from tape is in my future.
I, in fact, enjoy using a full range of computing
platforms as much as I like driving different kinds of
automobiles. But crank starting the engine in this day
and time is not my idea of a good time.
Superior hardware is such fun ;-)
K.RICHARD2 [Bondservant] Ron, I suppose that it
would be worth noting that it took about two minutes
to add a Quantum520s as my ) id scsi (I have THE
80IDE in my Falcon.) Just set ID to 0, plug ribbon
with scsi add scsi to scsi2 cable, boot up, format Atari
HDX; only got 500 megs, but for a 520, 1 was happy.
Rick
Actually, most of the time, you really have to won¬
der about what other computer companies think about
those poor schmucks who are their primary customers.
While effective, it appears as if most of what you read
that is directed at other platforms 9 customers makes
you believe that those folks have IQ's lower than their
shoe sizes!
POTECHIH [Nathan 6 DMC ] “Darlah and I recently
picked up one of the “XXXX for Dummies” books that
are available for many of the leading PC applications.
They weren’t kidding. You should have heard us
laughing at some of the explanations inside. One clas¬
sic comes to mind, although I don’t remember the
wording they used:
WARNING: DO NOT FOLD THE FLOPPY DISK IN HALF.
I remember wondering, after I stopped laughing,
if they were worried that someone would try and fold
a 5 1/4” floppy to fit into a 3 1/2” disk drive. ;-)
Nathan
ST. LOU [Lou Rocha] Nathan, if you fold a 5.25”
floppy to fit a 3.5” drive, does it still format as dou¬
ble-sided? :-)
A. FASOLDT [ A 1 Fasoldt] Lou, to format a folded
floppy on both sides, you need MOEBIUS.PRG.
A1
Then, just when you begin to think that the
“dumbness” tales are exaggerated, along comes proof
that DOS/Windows types really are clueless:
A.FASOLDT [A1 Fasoldt] Nathan, I have received
more than one call from readers who took my advice
straight to heart (bypassing the head) when I said
they should format many floppy disks at the same
time. One reader complained that two would fit in the
drive, but not three or four. . .
A1
POTECHIN [Nathan 6 DMC] A1 ... I’ll go you one bet¬
ter. ;-) One of the guys came in here yesterday and
repeated this story he’d just heard. It seems that this
new computer owner took advantage of the 1-800
numbers now being advertised by IBM to offer sup¬
port to everyone. The story goes that this person
called up to complain because her floor pedal wasn’t
working and wondered what she needed to do to get it
right. She was greeted by a long pause while the per¬
son on the other end first figured out what she was
referring to and then controlled her initial response.
It took me a few seconds as well. Fortunately, I’ve
used the floor pedal on our sewing machine and was
able to make the leap. But I must say, I don’t think I
would have ever placed the mouse on the floor and
stepped on it, even the first time in my life I turned
on a computer. Go figure. ;-)
Nathan
Page 30
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
Sign Off
This month’s column was a little briefer than I
intended due to a number of mishaps and best laid
plans... etc. Next month is going to be much better. I
will bring back a new series of GEnie Tip features
that focus on the Aladdin terminal program, which
Gordon mentioned in the library corner. Aladdin is
the front-end terminal program that makes using
GEnie a snap for even the faint-hearted novice. With
the price of 2400 baud modems dropping well below
$100.00 (or USED for $40.00), the availability of a
free terminal program like Aladdin brings
telecomputing within reach of every Atarian.
If you have a GEnie account but don’t have
Aladdin , just type “ALADDIN” at any system prompt
to get to Page 1000. There you will find notices to
help you get your free copy of the latest version. If you
don’t have a GEnie account but would like to learn
Aladdin , send mail to Joe Waters here at Current
Notes . I’m sure Joe has Aladdin on his PD disks and
for a small fee, Joe will ship you a copy on disk. Make
sure you get your Aladdin so you can follow along
next month.
[CN Library disk #829 includes a number of
programs useful to GEnie users including Air Warrior,
Aladdin , the Aladdin Manual , Genie's Assistant ,
Aladdin's Magic Browser, Aladdin Script Manual and
Tutorial, Aladdin Viewer. The disk also includes a
program for CompuServer users called QuickCIS. CN
disks are $4.00 each. -Joe Waters]
Sign Up
GEnie’s new rates are attracting a lot of users to
telecommunications. For $8.95 US per month you get
four hours of free connect time-long distance and
sprint node charges extra. Additional time is charged
at only $3.00 per hour.
Tb sign up, just follow these simple steps:
1. Set your communications software for half duplex
(local echo), at 300, 1200 or 2400 baud.
2. Dial toll free: 1-800-638-8369 (in Canada call
1-800-387-8330). Upon connection, enter HHH
3. At the U#= prompt, enter XTX99437, GENIE and
then press [RETURN].
4. Have a major credit card ready. In the U.S. you
may also use your checking account number.
FREE* Mouse Mat
* We offer a FREE
Mouse Mat for Atari
users who start or renew
their ST Informer
magazine subscription
and include an annual
subscription to the ST
Informer PD Disk Club.
**
Subscription Fees
1 Yr w/PD Disk Club
2 Yr w/PD Disk Club
Renewal Fees**
$ 61
$118
Call (800) 800-2563 Toll Free
Fax Orders (503) 479-1825
1 Yr w/PD Disk Club . $ 57
2 Yr w/PD Disk Club . $114
**APO, Canadian, and Foreign delivery nominally higher.
April, 1994
Current Notes
Page 31
Crescent Galaxy Dino Dudes
Raiden
All 3 Games Are $49.95 Each! Others Coming Soon!
Order Now! When They're Gone > They're History!
Video Toad
This is the ultimate cable for the
Atari Jaguar. Ports include
composite video, SVHS
(chroma/luma), ST RGB, stereo
left and right audio, and
headphones.
Just $34.95 Complete!
Catbox from ICD
Includes all ports of Video
Toad but also includes an
RS232 port for future modem
capability. Box with internal
expansion port from ICD.
Available soon!
Only $49.95!
MEGA STE s and TT030's
STACY: Portable ST
Includes: Cybermorph 3-D Game , One
Controller , and TV Cable. Many other
games available. Call for information
on latest releases!
Jaguar: Only $249.95!
2MB STacy - $1299
4MB STacy -$1399
The STacy is the only portable Atari ever released
in the United States. It is extremely popular among
musicians who need to be able to take their
show on the road, but anyone can enjoy
its simplicity. It’s a full-size computer with
a full size keyboard and trackball. If you ve ever
considered a portable ST, this is the machine for you.
TT030 _
•2MB ST $1299
• 2/4ST/TT $1499
•HD Kit $80
RAM boards are
available to allow
expansion up to 32MB.
Call for more
information. The TT030
is a 32M Hz 68030
powerhouse. Call for
more information.
ATARI SMI 47: Monochrome Monitor
The 14" SM147 has been unavailable for months! Through a special pur¬
chase, we have a limited quantity NOW, but they will be available for a
limited time only. While the SMI 47 has no internal speaker, it is a natural
for musicians, especially those working with
MIDI sequencers and scoring programs on the
ST. Color monitors simply cannot produce the
level of detail required to edit music. And the
14" diagonal screen of the SMI 47 is easy on
the eyes.
These monitors have sold out very quickly in
the past and are bound to do it again. Don’t be
left out!
ATARI 1Q40STE: Computer Flexibility
1MB STE- $399
2MB STE- $469
4MB STE -$529
Buy a 1MB machine with
SM147 and 170MB hard drive
The 1040STE is the ultimately upgradeable
Atari Computer. Add in SIMMs, through in an
accelerator, go to TOS 2.06. It all works and
works well, because the STE is the only
machine in the ST series that was designed
with upgradeability in mind. That’s why it has
been so popular in the past. Now, you have an
opportunity to buy a 1MB machine for just for $899! Call for details on
$399! That’s right! Just $399 gets you a fully this and other spectacularly
functioning computer. It’s great for kids, priced bundle deals.
as a first computer, or upgrade it and
use it for sophisticated publishing
and business applications. You
decide how to take advantage
of its flexibility!
Call for more
information on STE
upgrades and emulators!
Mega STE
• 1MB $899
• 2MB $969
• 4MB $1029
Detachable keyboard, internal
hard disk, SIMM memory and
more. These are just a few of
the features of the Mega STE
and TT030 computers. Call
for more information on these
machines.,
Includes 50MB Internal
Hard Disk Drive. Other
sizes are available. Call
for more information.
The MegaSTE runs at
16MHz and has a VME
card slot for extra video
capabilities.
Just $189.00! Brand New SM147!
Toad Computers Is Your Jaguar Headquarters!
(/)
<
x YOU NE
THEY'RE BACK!
Limited Time Only! Get these while you card
SURVIVE!
AT PRICES
YOU CAN’T
RESIST!
HARD DRIVES THAT SURPASS YOUR EXPECTATIONS!
Drive Cabling! _
• ICD LINK to connect drives to
Atari ST/STE. With DMA Cable. $90
• TT SCSI Cable to connect drives to
Atari TT/Mac/PC $19
• FALCON SCSI Cable to connect drives
to Atari Falcon 030. 3' or 6'. $29
• ICD AdSCSI connects type 5 drives to
Atari ST/STE. With DMA Cable. $90
• ICD AdSCSI+ connects type 5 drives to
Atari ST. W/ DMA Cable, Clock. $99
• SCSI Drive Cable to connect drives to
other SCSI drives. $19
CUSTOM CABLING AVAILABLE!
All Drives (Except Shoebox) Have SCSI ID Switches!
Entire Drive Measures 4.5" W x 3" H x 7.5" D!
105MB Removable $459!
Includes Drive, Case, Power Supply,
and one 105MB Cartridge!
Just 65( Per Megabyte!
105MB Cartridges $ 69
44MB Cartridges $69
88MB Cartridges $99
9
ft .
FALCONS AVAILABLE VIA MAIL ORDER! ■ WE STOCK MORE ATARI ST SOFTWARE! I TOADALLY COOL GOODIES!
HECCDR-25
Works only with ST's (notTT
or Falcon). Single speed drive
great for GEMini Atari CD
ROM ($29), fonts, clipart,
and oilier datoorientea
applications. Portable.
Only $159!
Works with ST, TT, and
Falcon. Double speed drive
works great with PhotoCD
and other applications. Very
quick indeed. External unit
with built-in power supply.
Only $369!
hjlC3xe/3xp/3xi
NEC work with all systems.
Triple speed technology is an
insurance policy on the future
of CD ROM computing.
PhotoCD capable, etc.
Call For Prices!
om ini
Atari CD ROM!
616MB of Atm
Ml hilt's
WAYCOOU
Jest $29.00
• 1MB, No HD $799
• 4MB, No HD $999
• 4MB, 85MB+ HD $1299
• 14MB, 85MB+ HD $1899
Atari has removed restrictions on the
sale of Falcons through mail and
telephone orders! Now you can take
advantage of the soeea and power of
the newest Atari domputer, with our
service & prices!
Call for prices on monitors and other
Falcon peripherals!
Toad Computers is your Atari source!
1st Word Plus 3.2 $69
AES Quick Ref. $14
ArabesqueProf. $129
Assembly Guide $27
Atari TOS Catalog $12
AtariWorks & Speedo $1 09
Avant Vector $169
BitMaker $39
Calamus 1.09N $179
Calamus SL $599
CalAssistant $29
Calligrapher 3/Gold $149
Cardfile 4 $29
Cherry Font Packs $24
C-Manship Complete $29
Cleanup $29
Cliptomania I/ll $28
Coalesce Merger $19
Codekeys Macros $29
CompoScript $199
Convector Prof. $99
Crossword Creator 2 $24
Data Diet 2 $47
Data Rescue $34
DA’s Vektor $249
DBMan v5.3 $179
DevPac 3/TT $99
Diamond Back II $34
Diamond Edge $47
DigiTape $189
DynaCADD 2D $249
DynaCADD 3D $599
EdHak(Acc. Editor) $21
EPSAIot ClipArt $28
First Graph $69
Font Designer Plus $129
Font Farm PS Fonts $28
FontVerter $39
Geneva $59
Genus Font Editor $69
GFA Draft Plus $99
Grammar Expert $39
GramSIam $29
Hard Disk Sentry $37
Hard Disk Toolkit $24
HiSoft Basic 2 $94
Highspeed Pascal $119
Home Accounts 2 $79
Hotwire+ (w / Maxifile) $46
Image Cat $29
Image Copy 2 $34
InShape 3D Modeler Call
Invision B/W $109
Invision Color Call
Knife ST $39
Lattice C5.52 $189
LEXICOR Call
LDW Power $109
Logo Library $29
Mailing Manager ST $39
MegaKern $39
MegaPaint Prof. $89
MIDI Spy 1.0 $49
Migraph OCR Jr. $119
MugShot Call
Multidesk Deluxe 3.3 $39
NeoDesk 3 $39
NeoDesk CLI $22
NVDIVDI Replace. $79
OutBurst! Accelerator $29
Outline Art 3.0 $99
PageAssistant Helper $39
PageStream 2.2 $179
Paper Plates (Calamus) $28
PgS ReadyTemplates $28
PgS Qwikforms $28
Phasar 4.0 $59
Printmaster Plus $39
Ready Templates (Pgs) $28
Redacteur $149
Scanning Tray &Colsc. $49
ScanLite $19
SCSI Prof. (ICD) $47
Speedo GDOS - $54
Speedo Starter Kit * $59
Speedo Fonts (50) $36
Spelling Sentry $39
Stalk The Market $59
Stalker 3 Terminal $34
Steno 2 Editor $29
STyle Image Editor $29
Studio Photo $79
TBXCad $59
That’s Write 2 $149
Timeworks DTP 2 $129
Type One Converter $39
Ultimate Virus Killer $22
UniversalltemSel.lll $19
Warp 9 Accelerator $39
WERCS $39
Word Search Creator $24
WordUp (Version 3) $39
WP Switch $24
XBOOT Boot Mgr. $34
MANY MORE AVAILABLE!
FAXMODEMS
Supra 144LC Class 1 $169
Supra v.32bis Class 1/2 $219
Supra FAX+ Class 2 $129
ZOOM AFX Class 1 $69
ZOOM VFX Class 1/2 $169
ZOOM VFDX Class 1/2 $129
STraight FAX! 2.1 $89
MICE & CONTROLLERS
Beetle Mouse $34
Toad MegaMouse $29
Toad Cordless Mouse $49
Three Button T rackball $49
Toad Optical Mouse $49
Toad Swifty Mouse $29
Atari Joystick $7
Atari Trackball $7
Mouse Master $29
HAND SCANNERS
ToadScanner (Includes Cartridge
Port Pass-Through and Scanning
Software -400DPI) $109
Golden Image H.S. $199
Migraph w/OCR Jr. $299
Migraph w/Touchllp $219
Colorburst Falcon Scan $41 9
Colorburst with OCR $449
SWITCHBOXES (COOL!)
Monitor Master $39
Mouse Master $29
EMULATORS
Gemulator w/TOS 2.06 $209
Spectre GCR w/ROMS $349
MONITORS
SCI 224 Color $209
SMI 24 Mono Refurb $109
SCI 435 Color 14 $299
SMI 47 Mono 14 Refurb $149
Toad RGB 14 Color $199
CTX 14" Falcon VGA $289
CTX 17" Falcon VGA $779
HARDWARE UPGRADES
Xtra RAM Simm Board $79
1MB SIMMs Call
ALL RAM Upgrades Call
ICD AdSpeed ST $189
ICD AdSpeed STE $219
Golden Img 720K Drive $159
KeySkins Kbd. Prat. $21
TOS 1.4 $59
TOS 2.06 $59
TOS Extension Cards Call
SPECIAL: Clock Cartridge
withPass-Through! $29
PRINTER SUPPUES
Atari SLM804 Toner $39
Atari SLM804 Drums $199
Atari SLM605 Toner $29
Atari SLM605 Drums $129
HP Inkjet & Dot Matrix Call!
COMPENDIUM
The Atari Compendium from SDS
Publishing is the most complete
programming reference ever as¬
sembled for Atari Computers. It’s a
full 800 pages about all aspects of the
operating system - as well as solid
hardware information. But it’s not just
for programmers! There’s information
every Atarian can use, including character maps, hardware
specifications and more!
SDS’s Atari Compendium - $44.95!
(800) 448-TOAD New 1 994 Catalog Now Printing!
(Please Use for Orders Only! Thank You!)
_ ___ . ^ ^ . - Hard Drives Ship Free In Continental U.S.
(410) 544-6943 Info
(410) 544-1329 FAX 5
APRIL IS TOAD REPAIR MONTH!
(41 Ol 544-6999 BBS SEND US YOUR REPAIR WORK! WE ARE
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TOAD COMPUTERS
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SEVERNA PARK, MARYLAND 21146
MD Residents Add 5% Sales Tax
Mo’ MOA Impressions
My kids and I have been playing a lot of Maze of
AGDAgon (MOA) lately. Since my last column, I re¬
ceived my cartridge and buffered tri-link cable from
Chuck Steinman. (I ordered by credit card over GEnie
e-mail, which I thought was pretty slick.) It is a great
game and the kids even have had friends over to play
it. (Put that in your Sega Genesis or Super NES and
smoke it!)
The tri-lmk cable has three SIO connectors, as you
might expect. One goes into my 130XE, the others go
to my 800XL and vanilla 800. The cable is expandable
so that you can easily hook another to it to double the
number of computers that can play. What a clever de¬
sign!
The only problem I’ve really had with MOA is for¬
getting to hold down [OPTION] on my 800XL. I do
have a few suggestions for future versions.
1. It would be nice to have different colors or “insig¬
nia” for each player so you can tell who you are
blowing up.
2. The lack of “peripheral vision” is a little discom¬
forting as mentioned by Dave Paterson in his re¬
view last month. The old game Wayout had a simi¬
lar maze visual environment and I never noticed
this problem. Maybe something could be learned by
looking there.
3. The rule where you can’t move after you drop a
bomb should be an option. When you are face to
face, whoever pushes the trigger first wins, if you
both press. It would be nice to be able to run away
after you drop.
Not to be outdone, Chuck Steinman and Jeff Potter
are ready to embark on another GameLink II
Odyssey —mAGDAr Invasion Force. This one involves a
contest. See the contest rules at the end of my column
for further information.
Info Highway Blues
Just when I get my full up Internet account, they
pull the plug on the Atari8 digest. This situation has
caused quite a bit of consternation in the 8-bit commu¬
nity, but no one has stepped up and volunteered to
crosspost the thing from Usenet to the Internet. In the
interim, it is possible for those with full Internet ac¬
cess to telnet to the Cleveland Atari Freenet and par¬
ticipate directly. Just:
telnet freenet-in-a. cwru.edu (123. 22. 8. 32) .
You usually get a menu first thing. Once you’re ac¬
tually on the system, even as a visitor enter “go atari”
to reach the Atari SIG. Thanks to Michael Current for
providing this tidbit.
My FidoNet quest continues. I have a very coop¬
erative SysOp on this end helping me out. Larry Black,
the Atari 8-bit Echo Coordinator, has been in contact
with us via NetMail to give suggestions. Hopefully, I
will be back up on the echo soon.
Elsewhere in This Issue
Robert Boardman joins us for the first time with a
short piece on how his club reorganized their 8-bit li¬
brary. Robert used his first Atari computer in April
1986, a 130XE, which he still has and uses. He joined
the Tbronto Atari Federation in 1989. (It’s getting to
the point where over half of our 8-bit authors are
Canadian. <grin>) He was elected 8-bit Vice President
in 1993. In real life, Robert helps people learn how to
use IBM compatible computers and software. In the
near future, we should be publishing Robert’s review of
UltiFont from TWAUG.
This month marks the last installment of FVank
Walter’s series on TextPRO. If there is further interest
in this topic, please let us know.
Updates and Errata
In the February issue of CN, many of you noticed
that we failed to print the DATA listing to generate the
Card Macro, CARDER.MAX, from Frank Walters’ arti¬
cle. So we are printing it here along with the DATA
statements for DATA.MAX, which allows you to type
the data items directly into the TfextPRO editor. When
using DATA.MAX, do not type 155; enter 30 instead,
since TbctPRO swaps these two characters when it
saves the text.
There was not enough room to fit Bill Mims’ DOS
comparison article in the February issue, for those of
you still looking for it. We’ll try to squeeze it in at a
later date.
Margo Sullivan posted an example of one of her
Public Access TV images mentioned in her article last
month to CompuServe (CIS). (See “Back to the Fu¬
ture-Atari 8-bits take on Wayne’s World,” Mar ’94 CN)
It’s called ROTVARC and it’s in CIS 8-bit Library 4.
Display it using Picture Plus or Atari Artist.
JVIEWXL Version 1, which was previewed for you
by Tbm Andrews, is now available on GEnie as file
#6792 (JVIEW1ARC).
Page 34
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
Listing Is Used to Creater CARDER, MAX
1000 DATA 233, 189, 153, 32, 65, 99, 116, 185,118 ,101, 32,77 ,97,99,114 ,111,4250
1010 DATA 62,32,67,65,82,68,69,02,46,77,65,88,155,64,189,144,4559
1020 DATA 38,129,67,108,101,97,114,32,115,99,114,101,101,110,32,102,3546
1030 DATA 111,114,32,80,46,83,46,32,110,111,116,101,155,125,89,135,4939
1040 DATA 177,177,189,233,73,110,115,101,114,116,32,116,104,101,32,108,4612
1050 DATA 105,110,101,32,98,101,108,111,119,32,97,116,32,116,104,101,3612
1060 DATA 32,69,78,68,32,111,102,32,121,111,117,114,32,110,111,116,3863
1070 DATA 101,32,97,110,100,32,100,101,108,101,116,101,32,116,104,101,3852
1080 DATA 32,233,32,105,110,32,102,114,111,110,116,58,155,233,244,48,8238
1090 DATA 208,218,155,195,61,49,53,196,61,55,49,197,61,55,55,208,5235
1100 DATA 61,56,48,216,61,55,50,217,61,53,54,218,61,53,55,155,4131
1110 DATA 20,82,20,84,244,51,48,226,53,56,248,57,54,236,53,54,5474
1120 DATA 242,57,52,241,49,247,48,217,197,196,155,153,32,69,110,116,8557
1130 DATA 101, 114, 32, 205, 207,-206, 212, 200, 32, 196, 193, 217, 32, 79, 78, 76, 8613
1140 DATA 89,44,32,112,114,101,115,115,32,82,101,116,117,114,110,155,5620
1150 DATA 137,44,32,49,57,57,51,155,28,255,229,124,155,153,32,69,6441
1160 DATA 110,116,101,114,32,211,193,204,213,212,193,212,201,207,206,32,4487
1170 DATA 97,110,100,32,112,114,101,115,115,32,82,101,116,117,114,110,4871
1180 DATA 155,68,101,97,114,32,137,155,28,9,127,127,9,124,155,153,5012
1190 DATA 32,84,121,112,101,32,110,111,116,101,46,32,67,107,32,67,1421
1200 DATA 84,82,76,95,87,32,102,111,114,32,101,110,100,32,111,102,3107
1210 DATA 32,112,97,103,101,32,49,155,139,156,135,63,38,189,20,73,4109
1220 DATA 9,8,8,157,157,157,135,177,63,189,135,47,47,189,144,233,9636
1230 DATA 22,84,69,88,84,80,82,79,46,77,65,88,155,0,0,0,9055
OREM Creates DATA .MAX
1000 DATA 35,189,159,137,155,31,135,35,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,4624
On the Horizon
Craig Rothman is preparing to write an update to
his previous review of BBS Express Pro! v4.0b. Appar¬
ently, it has a lot of new, fantastic features. Bill Mims
is ready to dig into an update of his review of PabQWK
to cover the nuances of the recently released ver¬
sion 2.0. John Harris is still putting his thoughts to¬
gether on a piece on Assemblers. (He’s writing an as¬
sembler himself!) If you have a neat idea for an article,
please contact me.
PC Xformer Update
Darek Mihocka did the first real public demo of a
workable PC Xformer at the Sacramento show (which
is today as I write this). Progess on the program is re¬
ally picking up according to Darek.
Here’s what the program supports so far:
- All graphics modes GR.O through GR.8
- ST Xformer virtual disk files for floppy disk sup¬
port (up to 8 at a time)
- Interrupt support for the vertical blank, display
list, and keyboard interrupts
- 256 colors, on the fly color updates (i.e. rainbows),
support for any kind of funky display list you can
throw at it
He’s still working on support for:
- Joysticks
- Sound
- Player missile graphics collision detection
Darek’s getting steady response from the commu¬
nity on the project. He’s spoken with Nick Kennedy
about SI02PC to investigate ideas on that front. Right
now, 8-bitters without STs would need a way (or friend)
to convert their 8-bit stuff into ST virtual disk files
(probably via Darek’s Xformer Cable).
We’re working with Darek to do a “pre-release”
preview of the program here in Current Notes like Tbm
Andrews did with JVIEWXL.
Prism Studio Update
Michael St. Pierre sent me the following additional
information about his new Prism Studio product.
Chuck Steinman will be writing a review of Prism for
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 35
an upcoming issue of Current Notes. Here’s a list of
what Prism Studio does:
* Combines the graphic capability of your Atari 8-bit
computer with live action video, for realtime FULL
COLOR video overlay.
* Supports all Atari graphics/text modes, including
custom display lists for split-screen effects.
* Overlay of computer video based on luminance key
principle (whenever the computer’s image pos¬
sesses luminance, this image will take the place of
the live video).
* External key input and video pass-thru provided
for future expansion.
* Special fade effects provided by two front panel
controls, allowing selective or non-selective fades of
computer imagery, determined by luminance value
vs. control settings.
* Comes with its own painted enclosure and power
supply.
* Simple plug-in installation on all standard NTSC
compatible Atari 8-bit computers prior to the XE/
XEGS models (400, 800, 600XL, 800XL, 1200XL).
The price is $179.00. (CA residents will need to
add sales tax.) S&H: USA $5.00, Canada $10.00. Allow
2-4 weeks for delivery. Ebr further information or or¬
ders contact: MYTEK, RO Box 750396, Petaluma, CA
94975-0396. FAXLINE: (707) 527-0674; GEnie:
MYTEK.
Fine Iboned Engineering (Fite)
Fife has BASICXL, BASICXE, MAC65, ACTION!
and R-Time 8 Carts available for $49.95 including
shipping. The OSS Carts are bundled with their re¬
spective toolkits. Fife also has a few P:R: Connections
left for $34.95. Fife will also upgrade your SDX to the
4.21 ROM for $12.95, and you don’t even have to send
the old ROM in! U.S. Doublers are also available again
for $24.95.
Fife has decided to release SpartaDOS 3.2d & the
SpartaDOS Tbolkit (both disk based) as shareware. A
one-time registration fee of $19.95 is requested. This
will get you both manuals, as well as on the Fife mail¬
ing list. If user response is sufficient, upgrades will be
provided to those who are registered.
Ear those of you who have not used the Tbolkit, it
contains “Cleanup” and “DiskRX,” as well as seven
other very useful utilities. Disk Images of these disks
will be uploaded to the networks, hopefully by the timn
you read this. If you’ve been using a “copy” of Sparta¬
DOS, here’s your chance to get legit! If you’ve already
purchased 3.2d, the Tbolkit utilities alone should be
worth registering. If you actually have purchased
“both” programs, you are welcome to support the cause
(and be upgraded) if user response is sufficient.
I failed to mention last month that the GEnie mad
address for Mike Hohman and Fife is: F.TOONED.
Tb register your SpartaDOS 3.2 contact: Fife, P.O.
Box 66109, Scotts Valley, CA 95067. Phone: (408)
GET-REAL.
GEnie News
Current Notes will be featured at a GEnie Real
Time Conference (RTC) on Wednesdady, 27 Apr 94, on
Page 475, 10PM Eastern. Page 475 is the ST side of
GEnie, but this is a combined 8-bit/ST Atari event. So,
don’t be shy guys. It should be a good time and we’ll
have banners up on the 8-bit side.
In spite of the recent problems with crossposts of
the comp-sys-atari8 digest from Usenet to the Internet,
GEnie subscribers are still in the know. Mike Tbdd has
been crossposting the digest onto GEnie. BRAVO!
According to a recent post on the GEnie Bulletin
board, the OASIS International Network (OIN) is still
hanging on. There have been a few hardware problems
here and there that set things back at times. OIN is
looking at using the Internet FTP to exchange the
packets with New Zealand and Canada to help these
folks cut down on toll charges. I am trying to find
someone to tell us more about OASIS.
There were so many good files on GEnie this past
month, I thought I’d just list them here, before I men¬
tion what they are about.
File Name
6793 QWK8.C0M
6792 JVIEW1.ARC
6774 PABQWK20.ARC
6767 MEETCOWS ARC
6764 TAX93FED.SC
Description _ _
Offline reader for unexpanded XLs
GIF decoder viewer for XL/XE’s
Ver 2.0 of PabQwk offline reader
Visual Poetry Program
SynCalc ’93 Thx Tfemplate
QWK8.C0M is a simple Off Line Reader that doesn’t
have all the functionality of PabQWK, but has been
getting good reviews because it is somewhat simpler to
use and requires a simpler set up.
I mentioned JVIEW1.ARC and PABQWK20.ARC earlier. Both
are very impressive programs by all reports. (Both of
these are also available on CompuServe as well.)
I thought MEETCOWSARC was really cute and so did
my kids. It was a little poem set against a semi-moving
graphic. It would be a great user group demo.
I thought I’d never see it, but someone actually put
up the SynCalc template for the ’93 tax year. Of
course, I already did my taxes by hand and got my re¬
fund back. Rats!!
Best Electronics Update
I touched base with Brad Koda of Best to see how
his new catalog is coming along. He’s holding it up so
Page 36
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
he can add more stuff to it. It seems that Brad won an¬
other bid for items from Atari Corp. The new batch of
stuff includes XM-301s, which will go for $19.95, and
SX-212s, which will run $29.95. In addition, Best has a
few more European titles to offer like Operation Blood
and a Lemmings clone called Brundles. Both are big
hits “on the continent,” according to New Atari User .
Brad is still working on his clock cartridge. I didn’t
realize this, but it will be an internal mount. You will
unplug a chip on your motherboard and plug this mod¬
ule in, instead. It will be something, when it is fin¬
ished. The planned price for the clock module with be
less than $35.
lb me, the biggest news was that Brad has lowered
the price of his XE TT Tbuch keys mod from $29.92 to
$14.95. I was so excited, I sent him a check that day
and will report my impressions when I get the thing
installed. Essentially, TT Tbuch is a new set of contacts
for XE machines that help eliminate “spongy keyboard
syndrome.”
Computer Software Services (CSS) News
I also chatted with Bob Puff this past month. He
will be lowering the price on his Multiplexer device by
the time you read this. So check with CSS if you are in
the market for one of those things. BBS operators like
them a lot.
Bob also mentioned that he has worked with Mike
Hohman of Fife to fix bugs in several of the OSS prod¬
ucts. The MAC65 will now compile to disk under Spar-
taDOS. Several bugs in the MAC65 Ibolkit are now
fixed as well. ACTION! incompatibilities with Sparta -
DOS have been addressed as well. This is great news
for all of us and all the fixed versions are available
now.
That’s all for now. You can contact me via the snail
mail or e-mail addresses at the front of the magazine.
GEnie Upload. Cpiitest
Sponsored by the ABBA group and DataQue Products
Ok, here’s the scoop. How would you artistically inclined
individuals like to participate in the next AGDA game? Well. . .
here is your opportunity.
We will be accepting submissions from now, until April
30, 1994 for graphical images for possible use in the next AG¬
DA sci-fi video game for the Atari-8 systems. Here are some
ideas of what we will be looking for:
1) Original space craft images. Your idea of what the craft
of the future might be-the more detail the better. Mul¬
tiple views from different angles are suggested. Both
inside and outside details can be included. The more
complete your submission the better your chances of
winning!
2) Planet images. Both from space and surface angles are
suggested. Several different angles and distances are
suggested. Detail and color will be major considera¬
tions in determining a winning entry.
3) Alien images. What would these dudes look like? You
decide! Space is the only limit!
Rules:
a) Any subscriber to GEnie, except judges, may submit en¬
tries. (Currently, that includes Chuck Steinmand and Jeff
Potter)
b) There is no limit to the number of entries, although each
entry package must be separately archived and emailed.
c) There is no limit to the number of picture files within the
archive, although no archive should exceed 700K in size
(grin).
d) A text file description of each picture file should be in¬
cluded in the archive. That text file should also include
the user’s name, address, and GEnie username.
e) All work must be original. Please, don’t copy an existing
game, or images from other sources such as TV or mov¬
ies.
0 Files must be email tagged from 2/8/94 thru 4/30/94.
Sorry, the timestamp on the file will be the time used to
determine qualification.
g) All files should be emailed on GEnie to DATAQUE.l,
with a carbon copy to JDPOTTER. No other form or
media will be accepted.
h) Files must be either KOALA, AtariArtist, or standard 66
sector binary images. No special processing files will be
accepted (for example GIF, TIFF, APAC. . .).
i) These rules may be amended if the need arises.
j) All entries become the property of the AGDA group.
What will you win? Well, the first prize winner will have
his choice of either the cartridge-based Maze of AGDAgon,
or a tri-link buffered GameLink-II cable. Any images used in
the game will be credited to the author.
Final judging will be on May 1st, 1994. The top entries
will be uploaded here on GEnie for all to see. The prize will
be delivered by May 30, 1994 to the address provided in the
submission.
Actual game coding is projected to begin June 1994, with
a release after the first of next year. The game concept is wide
open at this time, so the selected images will, to some extent,
mold the game. Keep in touch on GEnie, by email or the
CAT-4, TOP-12 bulletin board area.
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 37
TextPRO: A Guide for Beginners
Part 7 - Printing Tips
By Frank Walters
I never considered using TextPRO as my word
processor until it included the feature that saved the
printer equates in the configuration file. Then I could
assign inverse upper case letters to send printer
codes, 0 and not have to go back to my printer manual
every time I wanted to print using TextPRO.
In this article, I will explain how to set up a print
driver for your printer. I’ll give you some ideas about
additional help files and their associated macros, so
you can review which special inverse print letters you
have defined for each printer function. I’ll present a
simple idea to print an entire address list on labels.
Finally, I discuss printing in two columns with Text¬
PRO and a shortcut you can use to make the last
page come out in equal length columns.
Print Driver
First, you have to get out your printer owner’s
manual to look up the ASCII codes for various func¬
tions. Next, decide which special inverse print key
(letter) to assign for each function you wish to use. Fi¬
nally, save these codes and associated print key in
your TEXTPRO.CNF file so they are available when¬
ever you load TextPRO.
The easiest way to create a print driver is by typ¬
ing all 26 inverse upper case letters in the editor like
this:
<A>=0
<B>=0
<C»=0
Pick which letter to use for each printer code. Try
to use letters that Eire similar to the function selected.
I use <E> for Elite; <P> for Pica; <C> for Condensed; <D>
for Double Strike; <I> for italics; <Q> for NLQ font; <R>
for Reverse Linefeeds; <S> for Super and Subscript; <U>
for continuous underline; and <W> for double Width. I
assign the remaining codes to the letters left over. If
you go overboard and use up all 26 upper caseletters,
there are two lower case letters that have no current
function and can be defined exactly like inverse upper
case: <a> and <v>.
Now look up the ASCII codes that require es¬
cape (27) followed by another number. Replace the 0
(zero) with the ASCII number (following 27) in your
printer mEinual. On the same line, type a description
of the code so you can make up a help file using that
information:
Key Board Conventions: Keys on the keyboard
are surrounded by brackets. [START] means the START
key. Inverse characters are bracketed by “less than”
and “greater than” symbols. <=> means inverse =,
which is entered from the keyboard by first holding
down [SELECT] then typing the [=] key. Multiple key
strokes are indicated by an “underline” symbol or _
connecting the indicated keys. “CTRL” indicates a
“control character” which means the [Escape] key
must be pressed prior to entry. [CTRL _ G] indicates
that you would first press [Esc] once then hold down
the [CONTROL] key while pressing [G], <CTRL _ G>
means to first press [Escape] once then hold down
[SELECT], then hold down [CONTROL] key and while
holding down both of those keys, press [G].
[CONTROL] — [G] is not to be a control character, so no
[Esc] is required; just hold down [CONTROL] while
typing a [G], The same is true for [SHIFT] _ [G].
<E>=77 E=77 Elite draft (12 cpi)
<F»=111 F=111 Elite NLQ (12 cpi)
For any function requiring three characters, just use
the value immediately after the 27.
Some printer codes require three characters. My
printer uses 27,45,49 to turn underline on and
27,45,48 to turn it off. Since I use 48 and 49 for sev¬
eral other 3rd characters, I’ve defined the following in¬
verse numbers: <0>=48, <1>=49, <2>=50, in my print
driver. By using inverse numbers (which do not cause
ESCape to be sent), TextPRO will not count the in¬
verse numbers for computing where to break the line
when it prints. Ear example, if <U>1 is used to turn un¬
derline on, TextPRO would count the “1” as one of the
80 characters even though it is part of the printer es¬
cape sequence and would not actually print on the pa¬
per. Using <U1> instead, TextPRO ignores the inverse
characters in the count, as it should. The <U> sends
27,45, while the <1> sends 49, to complete the 3-charac-
ter printer code for continuous underline on.
When you finish, you may still have some unas¬
signed letters that are equal to zero. You can always
redefine them later. Now you are ready to force Text¬
PRO to read the equates into the configuration sec¬
tion of memory. There are two ways to do this. You can
move the cursor to the bottom of the text and use
[CONTROL] — [W] (in Text Mode) to find the page and
line at the cursor position. This forces the equates
Page 38
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
into the configuration section of memory as long as
the cursor is below all the equates. Or you can actu¬
ally print the file to get a hard copy of your equates
list. This will install the equates in memory at the
same time.
Before saving the configuration, make sure 7kxt-
PRO is configured to send the ESCape (27) character
whenever it sends the value of an inverse upper case
letter. Type [CONTROL] _ [;] and reply [N] to both the
“ASCII CR” and “Linefeed” prompts. Reply [Y] to the
“Add ESCape” prompt. Type [SELECT] _ [CONTROL] _ [S]
to save the configuration to TEXTPRO.CNF on your de¬
fault drive so it will load automatically whenever you
load TkxtPRO .
Help Files
Now you are ready to make a print driver help
file. I use the same format as other help files. What
mine looks like is shown in Table 1. Print Key letters,
numbers and some other characters are inverse, along
with heading and bottom line:
TextPRO 5.0X Print Driver
Now you have to load TEXTPRO. MAX and add the
macro to display the new help file. I decided to use
[OPTION _ P] for my macro key for the print driver help
file:
P<=><CTRL _ G>pp<=><CTRL _ Q>TPHELP.13,E: [RETURN]
Notice the “Goto” macro key, linking the upper
case “P” to lower case “p” since you want it to work
with either case.
Save TEXTPRO. MAX to your default drive and then
load it into the macro buffer with [CONTROL] _ [V]. Tfest
it out by pressing [OPTION] _ [P] to see the help file dis¬
played on the screen.
If you redefined some inverse numbers in your
print driver, edit TPHELP.06 to reflect the new values
for the inverse numbers. Load TPHELP.OQ and add the
macro keys to display your new help files and then
save it back to disk.
Disk MACRO Help File
While on the subject of help files, I made another
help file shown in Table 2, listing all my interactive
disk macros with short descriptions:
Key Panasonic 1092i
set p/x
TextPRO 5.0X
Macro Library
A
6 lines per inch [default]
p66
B
8 lines per inch
p88
Macro
Function
C
Compressed draft 4 OFF
x137
CARDCR CL
PS Card: Cond.(17): Rgt/Left
D
Double strike ON XOFF
CARDER EL
PS Card: Elite(12): Rgt/Left
E
Elite draft
x96
CR
Remove Carriage Returns
F
Elite NLQ
x96
DUAT
DTC DUAT flight plan
1
Italics ON J OFF
ENV ENV2
Envelope PS size envelope
N
Pica NLQ
x80
LINK
Link-load to bank |2| & |M|
0
Proportional 01 ON OO OFF
x85
P
Pica draft [default]
x80
#14 HELP> Menu
START Load Macro
Q NLQ Q1 Courier Q2 Bold PS QO OFF
R Reverse Linefeed Rn/216” n=36/line
S SO Superscript SI Subscript
T Sub/Superscript OFF
U Underline U1 ON UOOFF
W Double Width W1 ON WO OFF x40
Y Paper-out DISABLE Z ENABLE
Table 2. Macro Help File Screen
I only included an abbreviated listing to show you
how to do it. The text in the top and bottom lines are
inverse. Do not put a [RETURN] at the end of the bot¬
tom line of any TPHELP file. This will retain the cursor
on that line when it is displayed on screen, giving you
#13 HELP> Menu START) Load Macro
Table 1. Print Driver Help Screen
Notice the right side includes lower case letters
(p,x) which should be inverse. They indicate the values
you also need if you use the printer commands on
that line. This is a reminder that page width is
changed and you may also need to change your mar¬
gin numbers for different sized fonts.
When you finish your help file, save it to disk
with your other TPHELP files. Notice the bottom line of
mine is #13, so I use the name: TPHELP.13.
one extra line before it scrolls the title. Save this as
TPHELP.14. Add another macro key to your TEXTPRO. MAX
file to display this help file. Since macros use [CON-
TROL] _ [V] to load, I used [OPTION] _ [V] to read it, but
[OPTION] _ [M] (for Macros) would work just as easily.
Use the example for [OPTION] _ [P] above and substitute
the new letter and change the file extension to .14 in¬
stead of .13.
Printing Address Labels
Here is a tip I worked out for my sister who had
to mail 250 newsletters. She needed to print labels
from her address list. This is an easy way to do it.
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 39
The address list must be a simple text file, which
you can create with any word processor. Each address
must have enough carriage returns to total six lines.
A 3-line address should be followed by three blank
lines with [RETURN] characters only. A 4-line address
would be followed by two extra [RETURN] characters.
Save your address list to disk.
If your list is over 200 addresses, you might con¬
sider splitting the list alphabetically, i.e. ADDRESS.AM
and ADDRESS. NZ. This will keep you from filling the
buffer. You can print the two files separately, using
wild cards in the DOS commmand.
A standard 3 1/2” x 15/16” label will permit about
30 characters per line at 10 cpi pitch, or 36 letters at
12 cpi. Set the labels in your printer with the print
head on the second line of the first label. A label will
hold 5 lines at the default 6 lines/inch spacing. Use
DOS to copy the address list from disk to printer, typ¬
ing the source and destination like this:
D:ADDRESS.??,P: [RETURN]
That’s all there is to it. Pretty simple, huh? You
can send any font to the printer before copying the
address file, but do not turn off the printer between
installing the font and copying the file. Do not try to
print the address list from TkxtPRO as it will set mar¬
gins and send page breaks. But you can use 7 bclPRO
to configure the printer as desired using the previ¬
ously described print driver commands and then exit
to DOS and use the Copy command to print the ad¬
dress file(s).
Printing Two Columns
I made a hard copy of my sister’s address list for
her and printed it in two-columns per page to save pa¬
per. I’ll explain how to format TkxtPRO for two-col¬
umn printing.
For an address list like above, you have to make a
separate file with only five lines per address. Load
the 6-line list. Use [CONTROL] _ [G] and type [CTRI _ +]
three times. (Remember to type [ESC] before the
[CTRI — +] to get the special “Control Character that
looks like a bent arrow.) This enters three [RETURN]
characters at the “Find:” prompt. Press [RETURN] and
enter two [CTRL-+] characters at the “Change:”
prompt. After the global replace, your address list will
have one [RETURN] character removed from each ad¬
dress, leaving 5-lines each. This will allow 11 ad¬
dresses per page in each column. Save it under a
diferent filename than your 6-line list.
At the top of the list, insert the following two
printer format lines:
<?>1<!>1<l>1<r>38<t>4<b>59
<i><?>2<!>1<l>41<r>78<t>4<b>59
The top line is for printing the first pass. The bot¬
tom line follows an info <i> character and is not used
until the second pass. With the top and bottom mar¬
gins set at 4 and 59, it will allow exactly 55 printed
lines, or 11 5-line addresses. No addresses will be split
between columns or pages.
<?>1 tells TkxtPRO to start printing at page 1. The
second line starts at page 2.
<!>1 tells TkxtPRO to skip 1 page when printing.
Thus it will print all the odd numbered pages when
the first format line is active (1, 3, 5, etc.).
If there is more than one file in your list, add the
“goto” command for printing linked files at the end of
each file except the last. Due to a bug in 4.56 and 5.0,
the maximum length of the dev:filename.ext recog¬
nized by the “goto” command is 14 instead of 15. My
example only uses 12:
<g>D: ADDRESS. NZ[RETURN]
Insert the paper with the top line under the print
head and print the address list with [CONTROL] _ [P].
When finished, roll the paper back to the original po¬
sition. Insert an inverse <i> in front of the top format
line. [CONTROL] — [DELETE] the <i> from the second for¬
mat line. Print the second pass with [CONTROL] _ [P], It
will start printing the right column with page 2 and
all the even-numbered pages.
I wanted to print a footer with page numbers and
a title, so I counted the total printed pages and made
a new file to print just the footer line. Let us assume
it is six pages. Set the paper back to the first page,
clear the editor and enter a footer line like this:
<f> TITLE OF ADDRESS LIST<e>page <#>[RETURN]
<nnnnn>
The left margin of our document was set at 1 and
footers ignore the left margin so I left a space after
the <f> so the title would line up with the left column.
Since I want to print footers on six pages, I needed to
add five inverse <n> characters, to force next-page five
times, for a total of six pages.
Print the “footer” file and it will add the footer
text and page numbers on your two-column document.
That wasn’t too difficult, was it?
You can use the same principle and similar mar¬
gins to print two-column text files. You might want to
include <q>l in your format lines to justify the right
margins, like in magazines, although it is not neces¬
sary. When printing text files this way, the last
printed page will not come out even. There is an easy
way to correct this.
Print the two-column text file as explained above.
Thar off the last printed page with uneven columns.
Delete the two printer format lines from the top of
your file with [CONTROL] _ [D] and [P] twice.
(Continued on page 42.)
Page 40
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
Rebuil
Rebuilding the TAF 8-bit Library
Tips to Tielp ^our Organize ^our library
(C) 1994 Robert W. K. Boardman
The Toronto Atari Federation (TAF) was estab¬
lished in 1981 by users of 8-bit Atari systems. At
present, we have over 200 members, a monthly
newsletter, and a very active BBS. Since 1981, tech¬
nology has changed so that almost all TAF members
own 16-bit machines. Despite the change in technol¬
ogy, we have a small (8-15) group of members who are
actively involved with software and hardware on their
8-bit machines.
Since the first Public Domain (PD)/Shareware
floppy disk was sold to members, over 240 disks were
compiled by the TAF 8-bit librarians. Until recently,
the librarian could easily put together four disks a
month of newly released PD/Shareware. About two
years ago, the library went "on hold,” because there
wasn’t enough software being written or released to
warrant the release of new disks. We have released
five disks of new 8-bit software since Sept 93, and
more may be coming.
All of those 240 disks were arranged numerically
and in chronological order. We had both a printed
catalogue and a catalogue on disk, which was given to
all new 8-bit members. A printed chronological listing
has its advantages for historical purposes, but makes
it difficult for the inexperienced library user to find
what he wants. Tb make the library more "usable,” in
the summer of 1993, I decided to rebuild the library
by types of programs rather than by dates. Three TAF
members, Mike Seaman, Jeff Thomas and I, have
worked on this project so far. The TAF ST librarians
made a similar change the summer before and have
found the new format easier to work with, particu¬
larly for new members or for those members who have
a need for one particular type of software.
We had to work within some long established
guidelines. All disks had to be single density, with no
ARC or DCM files. (We had to work with the member¬
ship’s lowest common denominators: 810 disk drives
and no archiving software.) All disks, except those
dedicated to one game or demo, had to include DOS
(usually 2.5 but we used others), our TAF logo, and a
menu program. All disks had to have on-disk docu¬
ments explaining what programs did and any restric¬
tions (load with Basic out for example). We also in¬
cluded a Ramdisk file for those who could use it.
We had some equipment restrictions that made
some of the work more frustrating than it might have
been otherwise. While my 130XE has been a 320XE
for a few years, and my 1050 drive has a U.S. Doubler,
I have only one drive. During some of the process we
were able to use another drive and another 130XE,
which certainly helped a lot. The ideal, of course,
would have been a hard drive. Since almost all our
disks have an overhead of about 180 sectors (roughly
20 Kbytes) a 20 megabyte hard drive would have been
perfect. That we were able to accomplish this reor¬
ganization on the equipment available is a tribute to
the flexibility of these computers as well as to the pa¬
tience of TAF 8-bit members.
The first step in the process was discovering what
we already had in the library, and building a classifi¬
cation scheme. Our present (and long term) librarian,
Dave Lee, made an excellent up-to-date printed cata¬
logue, which we took apart, disk by disk, until we
came up with the following classes: games, utilities,
productivity, home use, education, text and DTP,
graphics, music, communication, programming, hard¬
ware hacks, demos. Some classes were obviously going
to be larger than others, and some material was diffi¬
cult to classify. We wanted to avoid having the same
programs in two different classes so sometimes we
made arbitrary decisions. We decided that utilities
would generally be small add-on programs that di¬
rectly affected other computer material, for example,
ARC, SDV. Productivity programs allow the user to do
a particular task more efficiently.
We made a split between DTP and graphics be¬
cause there is a large pool of material for the 8-bit
built around text and graphics on paper ( Textpro ,
DaisyDot, Printshop), and a separate pool for graphics
on screen (animation, logos). We have some disks,
which are not games, that have both animation
graphics and sound. Most of these were placed in the
Demo category. The Programming class includes what
others might call utilities or productivity aids: renum¬
bering, Pascal, etc. This class is of specific interest to
programmers in various languages. The Home Use
group includes a full disk of material for calculating
the costs of running a car, various income tax pro¬
grams and templates, loan calculations, shopping list
makers, and more.
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 41
Once we had an idea of what classes of material
we had, and how much there was, we started building
the new disks. If we were recycling, we had to remove
just the programs and keep the standard overhead
(DOS, logo, menu, ram). We also had to format many
unused disks and put our standard files on them.
Each disk in the old library was numbered in the
on-disk menu as well as on the label, so we had to
change all the numbering on recycled disks, and put
it in place on the new disks.
lb take advantage of Ultraspeed on the U.S. Dou¬
bler, we formatted as many disks as we thought we
would need for a particular session with DOS 2.5 and
added the DOS files. Next the TAF logo (62 sector
graphic), menu (in Basic) and ram driver were copied
from RAM onto each new disk. We then switched over
to Sparta and copied files from the old library disks
into RAM until there were about 500 sectors used.
Then we copied from RAM onto the disks. The process
was usually so straight forward that it became very
much like an assembly line. Put the original in the
drive. Do a directory and copy what we want into
RAM. Is RAM full enough yet? If 'Vfes, copy RAM onto
a new disk; if No, grab another original disk and copy
more stuff into RAM.
The work was fairly straight forward, repetitive,
and at times, a little boring. However, we did discover
several programs that none of the three of us knew
existed in our library. We also discovered how many
programs we had called “calendar.com”— three at last
count— and how many different versions of Blackjack
we have (more than three).
With work and family obligations getting in the
way, the transfer was put on hold in mid-December.
We are about 2/3 finished with the transfers of files.
Adding a short document file to each disk is yet to be
done (we’ll use the old descriptions as often as possi¬
ble). Tkxtpro allows the user to copy a disk directory
into a document, so we used that facility to keep an
on-disk catalogue as we worked. At the moment, it
has only file names; soon we will add 20-30 character
descriptions and then issue this new catalogue in
both disk and printed form. The disk will have an AS¬
CII text file in 40-column format (as well as the Tkxt¬
pro file) so any word processor can read it. Users will
also be able to print the catalogue direct to the screen
if they don’t have a word processor. Since Tkxtpro is
part of our library, we will encourage members to own
a copy so they can search the new catalogue easily.
Once the job is finished, TAF is willing to share
the resources of our library with other users and user
groups, particularly those in Canada. Reg Loeppky,
president of the Winnipeg users’ group, is heading a
movement to share newsletters and resources among
all Atari user groups in Canada. The work TAF has
done with Reg has so far been of benefit to 16-bit ma¬
chine users, but there’s no reason it shouldn’t include
the 8-bit veterans.
Because of the efficiencies of programming for
8-bit machines and the size of their RAM, 240 90K
diskettes hold an enormous number of programs. We
are very pleased with the work so far, and have gener¬
ated some new interest in the 8-bit library (even sold
a few disks) since the rebuilding. If it weren’t for the
conscientious record keeping of the previous librarian,
Dave Lee, our job would have been much more diffi¬
cult. Having an accurate printed catalogue made the
job straight forward. For user groups who wish to re¬
organize, I strongly suggest you find someone with a
hard drive and do the work on it.
If you want an electronic version of our finished
catalogue contact me:
GEnie: R.Boardman
Internet: r.boardman@genie.geis.com
CompuServe: 70034,3052
Printed copies can be ordered through (send large
size SASE or $2 for copying and postage) to: Tbronto
Atari Federation, 5334 Yonge St, Suite 1527, Willow-
dale Ontario M2N 6M2 Canada
TbxtPRO: Part 7
(Continued from page 40.)
Use [SELECT] — [CONTROL] _ [F] to find the first few
words at the top of the last page. Put cursor on first
word and enter [SELECT] _ [CONTROL] _ [U] to “Delete to
TOP” of text. Reply [Y]es and you will be left with
only the text on the last page.
Type [CONTROL] — [R] to replace the format lines
from the paste buffer. Be sure the <i> is in front of the
second line, not the first. Count the total lines on
your printed last page and divide by two to find how
many lines you want on each side of the page. Assume
you have 84 lines and want 42 in each column. Add
the top margin (4) to find line number 46. Change
bottom margin to <b>46. Print the left column and re¬
set the paper to the top. Move the <i> from the second
format line to the top and print the right-hand col¬
umn. Load your footer file and replace the <#> with
the actual page number and remove the inverse <n>s at
the end. Reset the last page and print the footer. Voi-
la! You now have an evenly spaced last page to add to
the other two-column pages of your document.
Conclusion
These printing tips should make TkxtPRO more
useful to you. If you implement the HELP screens,
TkxtPRO will be more user-friendly, as well. Fve en¬
joyed writing this series of articles about TkxtPRO for
you. Hopefully, this series has shown you that a
kinder, gentler TkxtPRO is out there waiting for you to
customize.
Page 42
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
Exploring AtariWorks
'Page, Setufc, <daJicJU and tyiafi&cc&
by Michael ‘Papa9 Hebert
In last month’s review, I extolled the virtues of
AtariWorks’ paragraph formatting capabilities.
Without a doubt this is the single most powerful
feature in the AtariWorks word processor. This
month we will be looking at some features that en¬
hance AtariWorks ’ flexibility.
Margins and Modes
AtariWorks provides a very comprehensive set
of tools for defining the type of page that is to be
printed. When you click on “Page Setup” under the
File Menu, a large Dialog Box with a multitude of
options opens (see figure 1). Your current printer
selection is shown at the top of the Dialog Box. A
click of the mouse button on the printer name will
drop down a Selector Box, giving access to any
other printer drivers you may have loaded in
SpeedoGDOS (yes, you can have more than one). Along You can check the Page Setup even while editing a
the left side is a row of Selector Boxes with three com- document. If you find that the margins or any of the
mon paper sizes predefined. When you click on one of other parameters are not what you want, the appropri-
these boxes, the paper size will be shown in the Width ate changes can be entered. A single click on OK will
and Height boxes. Clicking on the Others box allows return you to your document where you will find Atari-
yon to enter a paper’s size in the Width and Height Works busily implementing your changes. It takes only
boxes. Clicking on “Set Size to Current Printer” may be a few seconds for AtariWorks to reformat a 10-page
used with laser printers that register the size of paper document. If you decide that the current settings are
in their tray and communicate that information to the just what you need, a click on “Cancel” will send you
computer. right back to your document with no changes.
Printing orientation may be set to Portrait Page Setup parameters are saved with your docu-
(upright) or Landscape (sideways) mode. The Land- ment and also in WORKS.INF, which is updated each
scape mode may be used to create banners up to 36 time you exit AtariWorks . This is a blessing to some
inches long. and a curse to others. If the last document you created
The Margins dialog permits defining Left, Right, had a peculiar page setup, you will find that setup re-
Ibp and Bottom margins independently. This is an es- peated the next time you select New to start a docu-
sential bit of flexibility. Some printers, such as the HP ment. This can be tremendously convenient, if you al-
Laseijet, offset the top of the page downward. The off- ways use the same set of margins and print mode, but
set can be compensated for by decreasing the top mar- downright annoying for people who use several differ-
gin and increasing the bottom ent layouts. The workaround is to create
margin. Left and Right margin
offsets may be used with tractor
feed dot matrix printers if you
find your pages not centered
properly and do not want to shift
the tractor positioning.
The “grayed out” Print Row
and Column Headers’ selection
becomes active when printing
from the AtariWorks Spreadsheet.
It gives the option of printing or
not printing the row and column
an assortment of “blank page” documents
with your most used page setups. Loading
a “blank page” document loads the proper
page setup parameters at the same time.
Labels, Labels, Labels
Clicking on Label Setup takes you into
another one of AtariWorks ’ unique features
(see figure 2). While many other word
processors allow you to print labels and
even do mail merge operations, very few
permit you to define the label size. Atari-
headers.
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 43
Horks File Edit Mindow Search Fornat Style
E
iSM^ritffs^OiXHORKSXnVERVLBL.STH (HP) (Hot Saved)
|
...... .I1. ...... i2 . i3 .
l±x_
i-l.l ... Is . I6 .
i
^Papa’s Grafik Press<*e>
1228 North School Street
Honolulu, HI 96817
m
RUSH TO
MICHAEL ’PAPA* HEBERT
1228 N. SCHOOL STREET
HONOLULU. HI 9<5S17
IT
<T
4— . ^ 4
■■ * '.V
R
Figure 3
Works takes the Labels per Row and Labels per Col¬
umn figures, compares them with the page margins
and calculates the proper sizing of labels. A whole
sheet of return address labels can be printed after en¬
tering the data in just the first label. It will be auto¬
matically repeated on each label.
If you are printing mailing labels, the data may be
merged into the label from an AtariWorks database and
each label will be printed using the data from a differ¬
ent record (see figure 3).
The Label Setup option is useful for any operation
that involves repeating the same text and/or graphic
layout several times on a page. I have used this option
to print invitations, announcements and even a
Thanksgiving table “pop-up” place marker (see fig¬
ure 4). One user in Wisconsin has designed a postcard
layout that prints an announcement on one side of
cardstock paper. Flipping the paper over he loads his
database and merges the addressee data on the second
pass, complete with return address. All of
the AtariWorks word processor bells and
whistles are available for use in making
custom “one of a kind” multiple labels.
Would Be, Could Be DTP
AtariWorks , as I have said before, is
quite capable of doing desktop publishing.
The SpeedoGDOS fonts, combined with
Paragraph Format/Style macros and Atari -
Works’ graphic handling abilities, create a
fertile environment for all sorts of unique,
eye catching documents. AtariWorks can
import only two types of graphics formats :
GEM metafile vector graphics and IMG
bitmap graphics. Complementing Atari-
Works with a shareware graphic file con¬
version utility, such as PicSwitch or
GEMView, allows the use of all sorts of bitmap file for¬
mats, including photographic formats. GEM vector
graphics created in any of the commercially available
editors are usable as are those done in MyDraw and
Kandinsky , which are readily available as shareware.
Programs such as Avant Vector give the ability to con¬
vert Calamus CVG and Postscript EPS files to GEM
format for use in AtariWorks .
The graphics that are imported into AtariWorks
can be resized, positioned at will, and even overlaid. Or¬
dering the placement of combination graphics is a sim¬
ple cut and paste procedure. Text elements can be cre¬
ated, then “metafile copied,” with an undocumented
[Alternate]+Copy command. The original can then be
deleted and the metafile copy pasted in and reposi¬
tioned just like any other graphic. In the screen shot il¬
lustration in figure 5, I used one bitmap graphic (the
“X’ed” box), two GEM vector graphics created in My¬
Draw (the diskette and the word “Bodacious!”) and four
metafile copies (the word “Positively,” and
each of the three lines of text overlaying
the bitmap graphic box).
Bitmap IMG graphics will not appear
on the AtariWorks screen except as an
“X’ed” box. Initially, this can be very dis¬
concerting, but you get used to it very
quickly. It has two very positive advan¬
tages. One is speed, since the bitmap does
not have to be redrawn every time you
scroll the page. The other is file size.
AtariWorks does not store the IMG with
the text. Rather, it stores the path to the
IMG as part of the file, just like Ventura
Publisher.
GEM graphics will show on the screen
and they do slow down screen redraws
considerably, especially in larger sizes.
Once they have been sized and positioned,
Works File Edit Mindow Search Fornat Style
® : \W0RKS\ AM.P0PUP . STM (HP) (Saved) i : ; i?:; : v
K
□a
_0
_ ■ |2 . |3 . |4 . |S . ,S . ,7. . “
> ■■ .. .. .. ... . . .
Thanksgiving
Figure 4
Page 44
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
Works File Edit Window Search Fornat Style
|9|.” . P:\HQRKS\BLHKPflGE.STM (HP) (Hot Saved)!
Positively
KcM
T\
IMG Bitmap
O/ariaying a
GEM Mataftta Graphic I .
Atariworks imports GEM metafile and
IMG bitmap graphic formats. They can
be mixed on the same page and even
overlay one another. Text blocks may
be converted to metafiles^nd used as
graphic objects. Text wrap around graphics is quick and easy!
Figure 5
they can be “hidden” with a click on Hide Picture under
the Edit Menu. When this has been done, the slowdown
of screen updates is barely perceptible. Unlike IMG’s,
the GEM graphics typically have small file sizes and
are stored in the AtariWorks file.
Print speed will be affected to some degree by the
number and complexity of graphics on a page.
SpeedoGDOS has to take extra time to convert them
into commands the printer can understand. The slow
down is just perceptible on an HP Deskjet
or Laseijet but can be very noticeable on
older 9-pin printers with small buffer
sizes.
AtariWorks News
Is Black Page Syndrome fixed? Is Ver¬
sion 2 of AtariWorks imminent? The latest
word through the ever “reliable” rumor
mill is that Pradip is still working on the
BPS fix— on his own time! Atari has him
hard at work on Jaguar projects. And Ver¬
sion 2? I seriously doubt we will see that
for some time to come. Am I worried about
all this? Not really. I don't have enough
sense to be worried. But what about BPS?
We all know what the “cure” for that
is— and it is being implemented through
the “Decentralized Customer Support” network. Need I
say more?
And Next Month . . .
I plan to wind down the word processor portion of
this review with an examination of AtariWorks’ block
operations. Following that, I will move on to the data¬
base and then the spreadsheet. Til then, keep healthy
and practice a little “guerilla mode” thinking!
Don't Be A Solitary Atari.
The latest and longest standing group of Atari®
users in the world shares its problems and solutions
online every day in CompuServes Atari Forums.
And you can join them.
Find the latest software, like the new desktop
publishing program for the ST. Learn how to
ran Macintosh® and MS-DOS® programs on your
Atari. And pick up helpful game tips from
experienced players.
Need technical help? Atari personnel and most
third-party software and hardware vendors are online
every day. You can even provide recommendations as
they develop new programs and products. There's no
better way to get more out of your Atari.
To join CompuServe, see your computer dealer.
To order direct or for more information, call 800
848-8199. In Ohio and Canada, call 614 457-0802.
If you're already a membet; type GO ATARI
at any ! prompt.
CompuServe*
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 45
ffl00i>0
int. Music
by
Gary Woods
Cttbccse
Seore
r the past few months I’ve been
Beta-Tfesting the latest offering from
Steinberg/ Jones, Cubase Score for the
Atari. For the foreseeable future they
are going to be marketing three differ¬
ent versions of the program. The first is
Cubase 3.02 , which retails for $599; the
second is Cubase Score , or version 3.5,
which retails for $699; and the third is
Cubase Audio , which allows the user to
record audio direct to hard disk and re¬
tails for $999.
For the purposes of this article, Fm
going to confine most of my comments
to the Score Editor on Cubase Score , be¬
cause it has undergone the most radical
changes. There is also a new MIDI
Mixer Module in the package, and some other goodies
that Fll talk about later, but the Scoring function is
the real focus here. Cubase is such a great sequencer
that the addition of a wonderful scoring module has
really enhanced the overall product.
The Tools available in the Editor (figure 1) are the
“Arrow,” which is used to move elements like notes,
text, and barlines. The “Eraser,” which is used to re¬
move objects. The “Rest,” which is used to put rests in
the score with the cursor changing shape to reflect
the type of rest being placed. The “Scissors,” which
break the staff where desired, meaning you can have
2, 3, 4, or more measures per staff. The “White
Arrow,” or Layout Tool, which is used to adjust the
layout for things like how far apart the staves are
from each other. The “Magnifying Glass,” which al¬
lows the user to hear particular notes in the score.
The “Pencil,” which is used to place objects like text,
clefs, chords, or any of the other marks which the pro¬
gram generates onto the page. The “Note,” which, like
the “Rest,” changes the shape of the cursor with the
value of the note being
placed, is used to input
notes. And finally, the
“Glue Stick,” which is
used to bring staves
from different lines to¬
gether.
When you start working with the program, the
first thing you’ll notice is that everything moves much
quicker. The programmers have really worked hard to
speed up all the screen redraws and the placement of
notes and text. This is particularly evident in the
Score Editor, but the entire program works much
faster. Also, as long as Fm talking about speed, run,
don’t walk, to your nearest purveyor of Atari software
and get Codehead Technologies, Warp 9 Version 3.81.
This little screen accelerator placed in your Auto
Folder at boot up will immensely increase your enjoy¬
ment of all Cubase programs, not just Cubase Score .
The only thing to remember is to copy a program
called CUBASE.DAT from the original Warp 9 disk
onto your root directory and rename it WARP9.DAT. If
you don’t do this, the screen saver will engage and
Cubase will crash. But now, back to Cubase Score.
When you first bring up the Score Editor screen,
you will see displayed just above the manuscript area,
boxes with the numbers 1-4 in them. These are for
use with what is called Polyphonic Voices. Cubase can
display up to four separate voices on each
line, which is very handy for those of you
who deal with choral music. Each voice can
be displayed with the stems up, down, or
automatically, and with the rests shown or
hidden. Also, each voice can have a differ¬
ent quantization, or, for that matter, differ-
&
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Page 46
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
<> File Edit Structure Functions Options Modules Ulindouis
Figure 2
ent sections of the same voice can be
quantized differently. And, as with all
Cubase quantizing that hasn’t been
Frozen, it can be unquantized to the
original value. The display is quite flex¬
ible and very easy to manage.
Next to the numerals 1-4 are note
values from a whole note to 64th. Also,
there is a “T” for TViplet, and a “ .” for
dotted values. These notes are for
“Step-Time” entry of music onto the
score and make it quite easy to change
note durations. As you can see in fig¬
ure 1, the note icon has been high¬
lighted; this is the tool used to input
new notes into the score. Unlike previ¬
ous versions, notes are placed onto a
snap grid, which is set to the value of
the note being placed. Also, notes may be moved up
and down chromatically now instead of diatonically as
in the previous versions. This means you no longer
have to press Control to place a note outside the cur¬
rent scale.
The next area across the top is for Enharmonic
Shifts. Clicking on a note, then on one of these sym¬
bols will, for example, change a note from an F Sharp
to a G Flat to an E Double Sharp. You can change
several notes at the same time by holding down the
shift key and then clicking on each of the notes you
want to alter, then making your selection. On the sub¬
ject of Enharmonic Shifts there is an adjunct to a fea¬
ture called “Make Chords” that, when activated, will
apply the correct Enharmonic Spelling for notes
throughout the score. The option is called “Use Chord
Track for Accis.” (More on this later.)
Moving on down the line, next to the Enharmonic
Spellings is a large bold faced “I” (see figure 2). By in-
versing a note and clicking on the “I,” a box that al¬
lows the user to change such attributes as the Note
Heads comes up. There are many different types avai¬
lable, from harmonics to various kinds of percussion
notes. Below the note heads, bowings can be selected
for string instruments. Next, a stem direction option
can be chosen with Up, Down, or Auto being the
choices. On the other side of the page, you can choose
to make a note a grace note, or make it a small or
“Cue Note,” which is used to indicate activity on other
parts of the score.
Back on the main Score Editor Screen, next to the
“I” icon, are two arrows pointing Up and Down. These
are also used for Stem Direction, and like the Enhar¬
monic Spelling, can be used on several notes at once
by holding down the shift key and continuing to select
notes. Also, as I stated before, when used in conjunc¬
tion with Polyphonic Voices, for example, you can have
all the Stems for a particular part going up or down
as needed.
Next to the up and down arrows is a tool that has
saved me a lot of time. The icon has four arrows
pointed in four different directions and it is the sym¬
bol for “Auto Layout.” By selecting this feature, it will
automatically proportionally space out your score,
making it very readable. This feature can be applied
to a single staff, a single page, or the entire composi¬
tion. In the previous version of the program, there
was a great deal of time spent moving items one way
or another, and combined with the general slowness of
the editor, it really made laying out a score very tedi¬
ous.
Next to Auto Layout are four eighth notes with a
grayed out portion between notes two and three. This
is used to separate eighth notes into groups of two in¬
stead of groups of four, and, like all the other fea¬
tures, it can be used with the shift/click feature to ap¬
ply it to many notes simultaneously.
The last command on the line is simply labeled
“Hide.” In a program that automatically places a
great deal of information on a score, the Hide feature
is very helpful. It’s surprising how many extraneous
elements can creep into a score, and with Hide you
can remove everything from a dot to an entire stave of
music. On the other side of the coin, under the “Op¬
tions Menu,” is something called “Show Invisible,”
which will display items such as Stem Lengths, Split
Rests, and all the stems that were previously hidden.
Running down the right side of the score are the
various Symbol Menus. There are six in all, including
those for Chord Symbols, various layout features like
1st and 2nd endings, tablature, bowed tremolo marks,
and dynamics. I haven’t found a symbol yet that I
needed that was not represented on the Symbol
Menus.
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 47
O File Edit Structure Functions Options Modules Windows
Figure 3
Also on the symbol menus are sev¬
eral representations for Text and Lyrics.
Tfext can be placed as part of a layout so
that, as the layout is edited, the text
moves with the stave that it was origi¬
nally attached to, or it can be placed in¬
dependently so that edits don’t effect its
placement. Lyrics are placed in relation¬
ship to noteheads, and this is one area
that I really noticed how much quicker
this program works than the previous
edition. Tfext input, editing, and place¬
ment all work much quicker than be¬
fore, cutting the amount of time that it
took me to do a composition about in
half.
On the subject of Text and Lyrics
(figure 3), the program now has a 3rd
font called “Antigua,” which is an Italic Font and
looks great. For things like “Ritardando” and “Acceler-
ado,” this font should be ideal. Also on the disk, there
is a new Geramont font that looks quite good. All of
these fonts can be displayed with different character¬
istics like Bold, and Underlined, as well as with Boxes
and Ellipses around them, so there is quite a variety
of looks available for your text.
Lest you think that this program is all about look
and not about sound, there is a whole page of MIDI
Meanings for Symbols. Such things as Staccato, Tfenu-
to, and accent can all have a MIDI meaning that is
user definable. Also, there is a Drum Map so you can
Map pitches to the individual sounds in your modules,
yet display them however you would like on the score,
with different note heads and positions on the staff.
A couple of interesting features are something
called “Score Notes to MIDI” and “Build N Thplet.”
Score Notes to MIDI takes the notes from a score and
realigns the MIDI data so that it plays back exactly
as it is on the score. This is helpful, for instance, with
the other feature Build N Tliplet. This feature takes
several notes and combines them into irregular
groups like 5’s, 7’s or whatever is required. Then, by
applying Score Notes to MIDI, they can be played
back correctly. This saves a lot of time trying to ar¬
range them into exact rhythmic groupings in the
other editors.
Figure 4 displays the options in the box called
Staff Settings. In this area, the way the part is dis¬
played on the screen can be manipulated and then
saved as a preset. Such things as No Overlap, mean¬
ing that if a note is held slightly longer so that it goes
into the next note, this overhang is not displayed.
Also, there is a setting called Clean Lenghts. This
means that if a note is not held exactly to be a quar¬
ter note or whatever, it is not displayed with 4 dots
behind it, or instead of a quarter note displaying it as
an 8th note tied to a 16th tied to a 32nd,
etc.. You can also set up separate quan¬
tized values for notes and rests so that
you don’t end up with unreadable and
cumbersome rest patterns, like a quar¬
ter rest followed by a sixteenth followed
by a thirty second. There is an option for
setting a split point so that a keyboard
part played in as one part can be dis¬
played on two staves, and also an option
for setting up Polyphonic Voices, where
more than one voice is displayed on one
staff.
In another menu, there is something
called Explode (see figure 5.) This would
allow you to play a three note chord, for
example, and expand it out automati¬
cally to three parts to be printed and
played by three different instruments.
O File Edit Structure Functions Options Modules Windows
Figure 4
Page 48
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
O File Edit Structure Functions Options Modules UJindoms
Score - Piano_2,
[□goto QflLL □ FUNCTION QgTftrr □ FORMAT □’oPTIQH
Fi 1 . 192 I Cl* 8 Hquant 8 |snap tT^
^v- innrrTTTi t<: i j i j ipm jh — “
Figure 5
For someone who has copied a lot of parts by hand,
this is a real time saver.
On the next menu down, is something called
“Make Chords.” This feature is great if you are unsure
of what to call a chord because it will name all the
chords in your score automatically. Also, as I men¬
tioned earlier, there is an option that will help you
display the accidentals correctly so that they agree
with the key signature and chords. I was really quite
impressed with this feature; its accuracy was amaz¬
ing, even when I tried to trick it with some oddball
extensions and root notes.
After you’ve spent the time to create a perfect lay¬
out for a song, there’s a provision that allows you to
save it so that you can use it with other parts or other
songs. Some of the elements saved are Repeat Signs,
Double Bars, Rehearsal Letters, and Text. There is
also a command that would allow you to see exactly
what is saved before you save it.
A real space saver is the implementation of “Mul¬
ti-Rests.” This feature will take a string of rests and
reduce them to one multi-bar rest. This rest can be
broken up into more than one multi-bar rest, like tak¬
ing a seven bar rest and dividing it into three and
four bar segments. AJso, it automatically breaks a
multi-bar rest at places like double bars.
In the Options area, there is a great deal of con¬
trol over things like how far apart the sharps and
flats are in the key signature, how close the clef is to
the bar, how wide the slurs and beams are, placement
of bar and page numbers and many more options.
With the potential of up to 127 staves, you can deal
with as large an orchestra as required and still have
staves left over. Added to all this are the normal Cut,
Copy, and Paste features you would expect on a se¬
quencing package and it really makes for a full fea¬
tured music manuscript program.
When it comes time to print out
your score, there is something called
“Fast,” under the print menu. This
prints out the part in about a third the
time it would normally take so you can
make final adjustments without having
to wait. The normal printout on my
Hewlett Packard LaserJet II is approxi¬
mately five minutes a page, and it looks
great.
Bundled with Cubase Score are
some other goodies. First, is a rather
good Arpeggiator. You can have as many
as four different arpeggio patterns
loaded at any one time, using the pre¬
programmed patterns or making up
your own. Some of the variables are
quantization, length of the longest note,
length of the shortest note, whether the pattern goes
up only, down only, or both directions. I found it very
easy to use, and quite useful in some of the things I
was working on. I’ve never used an arpeggiator before,
but this module could prove to be useful for me.
The next item in the bundle is a Sysex-Editor for
editing large Sysex Dumps. I’ve also been testing the
“Studio Module,” which does similar types of manipu¬
lations; I’ll talk about it in another column. So the
Sysex-Editor didn’t have much use for me.
Something else in the bundle is called “GM
Name.” This works in conjunction with the Part In¬
spector, and instead of displaying program numbers,
it shows first the name of the class of instrument, like
Piano, Organ, Bass, etc. Then off to the right of that
is displayed the exact preset name like Slap Bass,
Synth Bass, etc.. It is really a very slick module for
someone who uses General MIDI devices in their
setup.
Cubase Score is also up and running on the Mac¬
intosh and PC platforms, with Cubase Audio running
on the Mac, but not the PC, at this time. The Score
Editor is a real full-featured module that has finally
come up to the quality standard set by the sequencing
part of the program. I recommend it for anything
from lead sheets to full scores and parts.
If you have any questions or suggestions on any¬
thing I’ve written, or for future articles, please don’t
hesitate to contact me at:
Gary Woods
6428 Valmont St.
Hijunga, CA 91042
818-353-7418; FAX 352-6559
\h JST^
— J
j — w
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 49
Atari in the
STicks
Henry K. van Eyken
The Little Engine That Could’ve
Or. How many times can you fold a sheet of paper in this
Age of Oversimplification1?
Question: A package of 500 sheets of paper is one inch thick.
How thick is one sheet of paper after folding it over 52 times?
Solution: 252/500 inches = 9 trillion inches.
Question: The average distance between Earth and Sun is
about 93 million miles. What is this distance expressed in
inches?
Solution: 93x10s x 5280 ft/mile x 12 in/ft = 6 trillion inches.
Compare answers.
The full title is:
The Very First Original Fleabyte Course
On
How To Program And Make Good Use
Of
A Casio Or Tandy Pocket Computer
& Guide To Provide An Insight Into
Why And How The Pocket Computer Can Play
A Vital Role In Education And Work. 3
Try folding a sheet of paper more than seven limes and
you’ll know it isn’t easy. But the calculation for folding a sheet
52 times is, and the answer dramatically demonstrates the
awesome power of exponentiation. Yet, the continued linefac-
tion of a paper plane while it is of paper no more is only
whimsically relevant, a virtual reality, an abstraction, a game
if you wish. Its relevance lies not in the blunted edges of the
folds, but in sharpened razors of mind. It helps develop in¬
sight.
Closer to reality is the scenario of the next problem, re¬
portedly taken from a first-year algebra book:
“Mary’s mother needs three hours to do the laundry. If
Mary helps her, they can do the laundry in only two hours.
How long would it take Mary to do the laundry by herself?”
An educator had selected it for thougHlful analysis:
“This problem was obviously written by someone who
had never done the laundry. Doing the laundry is usually not a
two-person activity . . . various quantities of soap . . . ma¬
chine goes through its cycles ... not make the agitator go
faster . . . soggy mass is then transferred to dryer . . . search
for the missing sock. The point is that most of the problems
presented to students in mathematics classes are patently un¬
real. Rather than motivating the students to solve problems
and study more mathematics, these problems teach . . . that
mathematics has nothing to do with the real world.”1
All very true, but I don’t think that’s the main point. Nei¬
ther does Mary. More likely, the right brain is convulsed into
urging the left brain to make an excuse for getting out of this
dull chore. Heck! Laundry is no fun.
“Mathematical learning should be integrated with play,”
sayS no less than the American Association for the Advance¬
ment of Science.2 That should make math fun by association.
What student in his rightsided mind would welcome less than
that?
*
Whimsical? Of course. But I was not selling snake-oil. I
wanted those teachers who were thinking of taking this
three-credit course to have some idea of what they would be
in for. Academic officialdom shortened the title to a sober
Pocket Computers in Education. We shan’t have PCs that
aren’t PC.
The Dearly Departed
Those Casio and Sharp and Tandy programmable pocket
computers are little marvels. Too bad they don’t sell them any¬
more in Canada nor, I believe, in the U.S. Casio and Sharp
used to make model after model, some sold under the Radio
Shack or Tandy label as well. My first one (bought in 1985, I
believe) is a Radio Shack PC-4, which had all of 544 bytes of
RAM to play with. I soon raised my investment from $90 Cdn
by another $25 to triple its capacity to 1.568 bytes. This can
be divied up among ten stored programs. Straight from elec¬
tronic memory they come; no waiting. Additional programs
may be stored on magnetic tape, which is a pain. However,
my Sharp computers can share intelligence with an ST as
well. Figure 1 depicts the Casio FX-730P.
The PC-4 has a 12-character-wide scrollable liquid-crys¬
tal display:
EXT ^ WRT OEGRADGRA TR
PRT STOP
1 O 7 ,-1 cr »•" ■"? «"« r i
1 « l o 4 j b i o y
Other models have displays of up to 24 characters. Using a
small, 0.2-K program, these windows are more than sufficient
to show that 2” thicknesses of paper = 4,503,599,627,370,496
thicknesses of paper. If desired, another 1-K program will put
this number into words, four quadrillion five hundred and
three trillion &c. Nevertheless, the small windows make it of¬
ten necessary to employ a tiny printer. Casio’s produce
1.45-inch-wide thermal hardcopy; Sharp’s are twice that
width. One Casio, the FX-820P, has a printer built in, Fig. 2.
Page 50
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
Figure 1
©
@ (3)~i r® @
. c [««•
## '60T0 CASIO FX-738P
to] qIj c& ©a © to ^ gj
©~j
© © gd ® © © jg. B ^ ife
@ @ E3 I z)~.
d) tii do sl
giii el
□3 (i) (i) e„
(i) b nfn
1) Display window
(g, 2) Alphabet keys
3) Shift key
4) Display contrast
9) Exponent key
10) Execution key
11) Calculation command keys
12) Connector for peripherals
- tj t' 5) Function memory keys 13) Power switch
6) Function key 14) Mode key
7) Numeral keys 15) Memo/search key
8) Decimal point key
(2) (?) (7) (8) (10>
The Casio FX-730P measures 6.5 x 3 x 0.5 inches and weighs 4.9 ozs. It has BASIC in ROM and an original RAM of 7520
bytes that may be expanded to 15712 bytes. It can hold up to ten programs at a time, programs that may be made to interact
with one another. The 24-character display window is scrollable to accomodate 62 characters. Battery life: nearly six
months when used an hour per day. Among the keys: a special one for functions programmed by the owner and another to
activate a memo pad programmed to accomodate personal preferences.
What makes these, now unavailable devices so interest¬
ing? Well, they are more than computers; without any pro¬
gramming they are also full-function calculators. And, like
calculators, they really do fit in a pocket and, hence, may be
used anywhere, be it for serious work or for turning math into
play. They should be great for kids, inside and outside our
classrooms, and great for professionals of various stripe. As a
teacher, I still use them to check students’ work, using a glue
stick to fasten the narrow strips of rice-paper print-out to their
laboratory reports, and I am sure others must have found their
own good uses.
A Tbuch of Class
I know, no longer does programming computency make,
not by popular concensus anyway, but why blindly follow the
crowd? Let’s keep our own minds open. Let’s dabble in it a
bit, if for no other reason than to understand why we feel the
way we do.
Only a few commands are needed to program one of
those pocket computers (see Box). Essentially, they allow one
Figure 2
The Casio FX-820P includes a printer that produces
1.5-inch-wide, thermal hardcopy. It runs off a separate
rechargeable battery, enough for 3000 lines per charge.
Haven’t we lost something here during our relentless
march toward things bigger and better?
to make loops for repetitive operations, to make conditional
statements (if . . . then . . . statements), and to manipulate
character strings. Here, as an example, is a program for aver¬
aging numbers. For readers unfamiliar with programming, I
have included a separate column, headed Data Flow, whose
vertical columns show how data change during the running of
the program when averaging 58 and 84:
Command List for Tandy PC-4
Input/Output:
Data processing:
INPUT
READ
KEY$
DATA
PRINT
RESTORE
CSR n (format)
Execution :
Assignment statements:
RUN
LLETJ
STOP
SET (decimal places)
END
MODE (angular units)
REM
String manipulation:
PASS (password)
LEN
Listing and clearing:
MID$
CLEAR (data)
VAL
LIST (one program)
STR$
LIST ALL
Flow control:
NEW (one program)
GOTO
NEW ALL
ON . . . GOTO
Tape storage/retrieval:
IF . . . THEN . . .
SAVE
GOSUB
LOAD
ON . . . GOSUB
SAVE ALL
RETURN
LOAD ALL
FOR, TO, [STEP]
PUT
NEXT
GET
VERIFY
April 1994
Current Notes
P&ge 51
PROGRAM
IB CLEAR
ZB PRIHT "E for exit"
3B LET 1=1+1
4B INPUT "Value", V$
5B IF V$="E" THEN 8B
6B LET T=T+VfiL(V$)
7B 6BTB 3B
88 PRINT "five "jT/(I-i)
DATA FLOW
I I=B, T=B
I
I Hhen 1= 1 23
I then V$= 58 84 E
I
I T= 58 142
I
I T/(I-1)= 71
The letters / and I, in lines 30, 60, and 80, represent nu¬
merical values. At the outset these are set to zeros by CLEAR
A single letter followed by a dollar sign, like V$ in lines 40
and 60, represents a string of characters, which may consist of
letters, digits, and other symbols. (A siring may be as short as
zero characters, which I then identify by "".) The program’s
lines are read by the computer in the order of increasing line
numbers preceding them.
When the program runs, it first reminds the user to press
E when finished with typing in the numbers to be averaged.
The sign “=” means either equals or, particularly in a state¬
ment beginning with LET, replace by. Thus line 20 replaces
the existing value of / by / + 1. In this instance, zero is re¬
placed by one. The computer then asks: Value! You type in
the first number-58 in the above example. Because you en¬
tered characters other than an E, the computer will replace
the existing value of T, which is 0, by PAL(V$), which is the
value read from the character string just entered. The compu¬
ter then returns to statement line no. 30 and asks again: Value!
Cycling continues until you enter E. Then the conditional
statement of line 50 makes the program jump to line 80 where
the average is calculated and displayed.
The example contains a loop and a condition to be met. It
also offers an example of string manipulation: VAL(V$), which
takes the value of a string. The programmer might include a
guard against mistakes. Anticipating, for example, that the
word EXIT is entered instead of the single letter E, a potential
error can be avoided by changing line 40 to:
Mutilation Beyond Hope
Why were programmable pocket computers taken off the
(North American) market? Presumably, there was not enough
demand. There is resistance to learning how to program.
The Fleabyte course was mostly well received, but hav¬
ing given it a few times, I know that there are outstandingly
bright people who find it hard to come to grips with this par¬
ticular activity-programming. Maybe they feel they have little
use for it. Maybe this is because of minds differently formed,
maybe because of a different path through life or because of
other matters vying for attention. Or maybe I still had to learn
how to better conduct such a course, how best to adapt it to a
variety of individuals, how better to demonstrate its immedi¬
ate value and its potential.
Ultimately, the course could no longer be offered because
those programmable pocket computers were withdrawn from
the market and non-programmable, personal organizers such
as the Sharp’s Wizard and Casio’s B.O.S.S. began to take their
place. Please, do not ask me why anyone would prefer an
electronic diary over an old-fashioned one made of paper.
Somebody else will have to explain that one. This essay is
about cheap, programmable pocket computers, not about or¬
ganizers.
When desktop computers made their grand entree, the
argument was less whether students should learn to program
than what programming language is best. BASIC had ac¬
quired a bad odor emanating from its GOTO statement. The
sample above shows such a statement explicitly in line
80, and there is one implied in line 50 because that
line really means to say
5B IF V$="E" THEN GBTB 8B
Word had gotten around that,
“It is practically impossible to teach good programming
to students that have had prior exposure to BASIC: as poten¬
tial programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of
regeneration.”6
4B IF MID$(V$,1,1)="E" THEN 78
to isolate the first character of EXIT. MID$(V$,1,1) is another
example of string manipulation.
To readers in-the-know: Sure, this is “Street” BASIC and
the program is sensitive to input errors. I merely want to show
how a program works and thereby help the reader balance
cost versus benefit." The point is, it doesn’t require much im¬
agination to realize that fine computing can be done with a
simple, and cheap!, pocket computer without a long list of
commands to memorize. It doesn’t require extraordinary pow¬
ers of reflection that such computing might have pedagogical
value by developing greater comfort with numbers and,
thereby, superior numeracy. And that it insists on users as¬
suming a habit of discipline without which programming is
impossible. And when all is said and done, it shows students
that memorizing formulas is not the same as getting an educa¬
tion.5
“The unbridled use of the go to statements ... is too
much of an invitation to make a mess of one’s program.”7
GOTO, critics say, allows budding programmers to
create unstructured code that makes detour after detour. This
spagheti code is hard to trace by people (no, not by comput¬
ers) and, hence, hard to correct or otherwise modify. But for
the kind of programming I am writing about here, with very
short programs, GOTO shall not mutilate impressionable
minds anymore than learning to write English can. The unbri¬
dled use of pencil or ink creates far more unstructured code
than the GOTO statement ever will. It’s a matter of practice
and discipline.
Properly structured programming is well accomodated by
such new BASICS as our GFA BASIC and Microsoft’s Q-BA-
SIC. Here, for comparison, is the averaging program in GFA
BASIC with statements written to fit a 24-character display
window. It is easier to read than Casio’s Street BASIC, espe-
Page 52
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
daily because indenting, which is done automatically, makes
loops stand out visually. And it shows no GOTO .
PROGRAM DATA FLOW
CLR i,t I 1=0, T=0
PRINT "E for exit" I
REPEAT I
LET 1=1+1 I When 1= 1 Z 3
INPUT "Ualue", V$ I then V$= 58 84 E
LET T=T+VflL(V$) I T= 58 142 142
UNTIL MID$(U$,1,1J=IIE» I
PRINT "five T/CI-1 J I T/(I-1)= 71
Taking Cues for Clues
Not only do many students enter college illiterate, many
arrive also without much skill and insight in arithmetic and
algebra. They meet my chemistry problems by fiddling with
numbers till something comes up they pray is reasonable. Is
this only a consequence of that proverbial grasping for straws,
or is it the outcome of a history of brainwashing in exploiting
clues that may be utterly irrelevant?
I recently attended a session on numeracy conducted by a
teacher who has served in various capacities in the American
Mathematical Association of Two-year Colleges and, hence,
is well placed to deal with that topic.8 It gave me an opportu¬
nity to see classroom interactions through the eyes of a
teacher in another discipline. These included stories about
children’s approaches to problem-solving. One boy who had
done quite well throughout school said that if a problem con¬
tains two big numbers, he subtracts; if one number is big and
the other small, he divides; but if the division doesn’t come
out even, he multiplies instead. Apparently, that works well
enough to get passing grades.
Among the examples given, I like this little design for
finding out what fraction of college students fall for clues that
aren’t pertinent:
“Judy is 33, unmarried and quite assertive. A magna cum
laude graduate, she majored in political science in college and
was deeply involved in campus social affairs, especially in
anti-discrimination and anti-nuclear issues. Which statement
is more probable?
(a) Judy works as a bank teller.
(b) Judy works as a bank teller and is active in the femi¬
nist movement.”9
Non-pertinent clues are the Achilles’ heel also of chemistry.
Familiar to me was the observation that many textbooks
are cooked to meet the market of this Age of Oversimplifica¬
tion; written to lessen short-term pain at the expense of
long-term gain:
“Some textbooks, and even some tests, seem to have been
written by people who have joined in a conspiracy to make it
appear that children have learned to solve problems when
they have in fact only learned how to take certain kinds of
tests. Such activity is harmful largely because it takes time
and effort away from the serious goal of helping children un¬
derstand and deal with the real world.”1
Did I not write the same in this column a few months ago?
“The prescribed course text was a “How-to” manual
more than a proper textbook. . . . The book had given my stu¬
dent a sense of security . . . and her mascara began to run
when she recognized her sense of security had betrayed her.
She had already crossed too many bridges without having ac¬
comodated needed concepts and principles. By now she was
thoroughly confused and frustrated. . . .”10
Too many textbooks simply emphasize what formulas
must be memorized, then add some dumb drill. It all goes
something like so:
Memorize: Surface area of a sphere: 4 nr2.
Exercise: What is the surface area of a sphere with a ra¬
dius of 4 inches?
Problem: What is the radius of a sphere with a surface
area of 100 square inches?
The exercise demands of a student to perform at the intel¬
lectual level of a cheap calculator. To solve that what I loftily
called a problem , he must aspire to be like a slightly more ex¬
pensive calculator. Often (usually?) not required is practice
that leads to more readily recognizing what neuronic or elec¬
tronic algorithms to apply in tackling real, worthwhile prob¬
lems, or, possibly, to scorn algorithms altogether.11 Small won¬
der that college students’ approaches to problem solving are
too often haphazard. Students who can’t read grasp for clues
that are not at all pertinent because they can’t discern what is
pertinent. So, there you have it: a sad truth about how well
young people are prepared for our global village, prepared
neither for competition nor cooperation.
Algorithmic Programming
Every so often I encounter arguments for chess in school.
The needed concentration and discipline make for better
minds. No question about that, but I propose that we take a
hard look at computer programming instead of chess as the
means. Programming requires discipline to handle it logically
and systematically. It has the added advantage of being useful.
There is good reason for having kids program at as young an
age as maturation allows. By using, especially in the beginn¬
ing, a language with few commands should help focus on
what is needed most: developing problem-solving strategies
or algorithmics.12 Irrelevant clues will not see them through.
Once students can write programs, they may use them to rap¬
idly generate insight-engendering numbers from given data.
One may expect that this will further improve learning.
The reader will understand why I think it is a pity that
those cheap Casio and Tandy pocket computers went off the
market. But understand correctly, I never did consider them
quite good enough as they are. Their merit is that, with minor
improvements, they can help prepare students for a more de-
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 53
manding future. Beyond that, fully-featured pocket computers
may well evolve into tools that will be part of that future by
providing on-the-pcrson intelligence.
Pocket computers have returned to the market. They
range from expensive Hewlett-Packard products to the more
reasonably priced Atari Portfolio with its uncertain future.
Should we pick up where we left off?
For now, we work mainly with our desktops. If one over¬
looks their lack of mobility, they are more convenient even for
exploring the pedagogical games that may be played with
pocket computers (eventually?). But for such applications we
want only a small command set with a view to easy mastery.
Learning the language must not get in the way of learning to
program. We want students to become better problem solvers,
not bigger catalogs. This points to a need to distinguish the
kind of programming I have in mind (call it algorithmic pro¬
gramming , if you wish) from professional and hobby pro¬
gramming. Look at writing. Schools teach students how to
write up to a point; they don’t teach writing poetry and novels.
What programs might students make?
The variety seems endless. Most of all, I think, we must
value those that expand their sense of numbers and grasp of
number systems. Many would fall in the jun-mth-numbers
category such as algorithms for generating triangular num¬
bers, a Fibonacci sequence, the sum of an algebraic or geo¬
metric series, residues with repeating and non-repeating deci¬
mals, the prime number sequence, common factors, conver¬
sions between number systems (such as to and from Roman
numerals, of course!), iterations, what-have-you. Then, there
are all sorts of algebraic and geometrical algorithms they
might develop, e.g. for solving simultaneous equations and
Diophantine equations, for calculating n.13 How about mon¬
etary problems with their variety of interesting interest al¬
gorithms for those who either borrower or lender be? How
about sorting routines and solving alphanumeric puzzles in
which letters parade as digits? The Sun is the limit.
Trains of Thought
In keeping with this essay I like to conclude with another
simple program, one that might make Mary take notice. As I
remember, there used to be a lot of ditch digging going on in
math classes, with scenarios like this:
Peter’s father needs three hours to dig a ditch. If Peter
helps him, they can dig the ditch in only two hours. How long
would it take Peter to dig that ditch by himself?
After working the problem, Peter, who would rather help
out in the yard than attend classes, went on to create a pro¬
gram for problems of this ilk. He decided he might as well
generalize it to meet various contingencies. For example, it
might accomodate more than two people on a job or the find¬
ing out how long it takes to complete a job by people with dif¬
ferent personal productivities. Here is his program, along
with an indication of the data flow for the problem as posed
above. (See program listing in box.)
The Number to be entered is the number of people par¬
ticipating. After One , enter the time it takes one person to do
PROGRAM
DATA FLOW
(for above question)
CLR t,f$
i t=8, f$=»"
PRIHT "One for All £ All for One"
INPUT "Nunber; ";n
l n= Z
FOR i=i to n
1 Hhen i=
1
2
PRINT :0ne
l then i=
1
INPUT a$
l a$=
3
mi
IF VfiL(a$)<>0
1 VfiL(a$)=
3
0
t=t+l/VRL(a$)
1 t= 1/3
1/3
ELSE
1
f$="up"
1 f$=
up
ENDIF
1
NEXT i
1 i=
2
3
IF f$=""
1
PRINT "fill; "jl/t
1 l/t=
3
ELSE
1
INPUT "fill; ";z
1 z=
2
IF l/z=t
1
PRINT "Error"
1
ELSE
PRINT "One ("ji;")i
"jl/(l/z-t)
1 l/(i/z)-t=
6
ENDIF
1
ENDIF
1
END
1
the job; if nothing is entered, the program will later ask how
long it should take the team to do the job.
If you have GFA BASIC, you might copy it and have it
answer the question that follows, or else you might find the
answer by tracing the above data flow layout:
It would take Peter’s father three hours to dig a ditch and
it would take his big uncle two hours to do the same job. They
want to get the job done within one hour and decided to work
together and ask Peter to pitch in as well. The three made it
just in time. How long would it have taken Peter to dig the
ditch by his lonely self?
And how about this problem, so much dearer to my
heart?
It takes Little Red Engine six hours to pull a train from
Montreal to Ottawa. The Silver Streamliner can do it thrice as
fast. How soon could they be in Ottawa by pulling together?
Yes, indeed, it is the thought that counts! Algorithms are
not to be applied blindly. We shan’t take thinking out of serv¬
ice too rashly, as many of our textbooks do.
Neither should little Fleabyte have been taken out of
service too rashly. We need product cycles that allow us to
come to terms with what’s new on the market. We need time
to crystallize experience in how computers may serve students
preparing for their future. Building that experience demands a
broad view of things, a systems view. It just isn’t good enough
to know something about computers, or about modern educa-
Page 54
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
tional technology. It isn’t good enough to know something
about people, or about their learning. And it isn’t good
enough to know something about the planet we share and
about separatist habits of mind. We must also vanquish that
paralysis mislabeled realism and move on, dreaming of better
ways.
Surely, we can think we can. ;)
CONTACT;
On GEnie: H.VANEYKEN
Address:
11 Falcon
Lakefield, Quebec, JOV 1K0
Canada
sion rather than “computation or decoding” [Roughly: “ plug¬
ging-in numbers” vE.] prevents students from doing word
problems.
12 1 would suggest that college departments of mathematics
formally become departments of mathematics and algorith-
mics. Suggested reading: David Harel, Algorithmics : The
Spirit of Computing. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. 1987.
13 Though 3.1415... is customarily generated from a geo¬
metrical foundation, a simple exercise in string manipulation
may produce its digits from such letter-counting mnemonics
as How I like a drink , alcoholic, of course, after all these
chapters involving quantum mechanics. Or from this, per¬
haps educationally more correct, pious poetry:
NOTES & REFERENCES
Stephen S. Willoughby, Mathematical Education fora
Changing World , ASCD, Alexandria, Virginia (1990), p.41.
2 The reference is to an aspect of the AAAS’ Project 2061:
Science For All Americans that defines literacy goals in sci¬
ence, mathematics, and technology.
3 Pocket Computers in Education. Course for educators
given under the auspices of the University of Sher¬
brooke. 1987 - 1989.
4 This level of programming skill is also needed for (many,
all?) proprietory scripting languages, such as for automating
telecommunication programs. That's Write 2 employs a script¬
ing language called Follow Instructions. And who never heard
of Mac’s HyperTalk
5 Quipped behaviorist B.F. Skinner, “Education is what sur¬
vives after what has been learnt has been forgotten.”
6Edsger Dijkstra, “How Do We Tell Truths That Might
Hurt?” Selected Writings on Computing , 1975.
7Edsger Dijkstra, “Go To Statement Considered Harmful.”
Note in Comm ACM 11, No.3: 147-148 (March 1968).
8 Brian E. Smith, Numeracy: The Relationship Between
Mathematics and Language. Discussion organized by the
Centre for Literacy of Quebec, Inc. , at Dawson College,
Montreal, Feb. 10, 1994.
9 The scenario was developed by psychologists Tversky and
Kahneman and quoted in John Allen Paulos, Innumeracy.
Vintage Books, 1990. Tversky and Kahneman found that 85%
of college students erroneously responded that (b) was more
probable. But, then again, that could happen to the best of us
if we don’t attend to what we read.
10 vE, “Changing Minds,” Current Notes, Oct. 1993, p.22.
n From “Reading in the Mathematics Classroom: Unre¬
solved Issues,” J. Reading, Feb. 1994, p.389: A survey of 114
U.S. middle school math teachers finds reading comprehen¬
Now I will a rhyme construct.
By chosen words the young instruct
Cunningly devised endeavour.
Con it and remember ever
Widths in circle here you see
Sketched out in strange obscurity.
efr
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April 1994
Current Notes
Page 55
IS jMMMBgjg
Introduction
If you haven’t read last month’s review of Geneva
yet, you may want to read it now. This is the second
part of a two part review. Last month we covered the
fundamental features of Geneva and the concept of a
multitasking environment. This month we’ll go into
greater detail of specific Geneva features. Because of
the magnitude of Geneva , we will not cover every fea¬
ture. Just the really significant ones.
Setting Up Geneva the Right Way
To get the most from Geneva , you should spend
some time configuring it to your particular system
and needs. This is achieved with the use of the Task
Manager, a desktop accessory provided with Geneva .
This program is the heart of Geneva ; it controls the
way Geneva runs and acts.
The Task Manager is ac¬
cessed via the desk menu. It
places a small window on the
desktop. See figure 1. This win¬
dow will list all current applica¬
tions in memory. Notice the way
the listing of applications loaded
is printed. Small text indicates
a program that is single-tasking.
Italics mean an application is
sleeping. The small circle next to
an item means it is running as
an accessory.
You can use the Task Manager to switch between
applications. Within the Task Manager there are two
menus, File, for controlling the running of applica¬
tions and, Options, for general setting of Geneva.
The File menu will allow you to open (run) an ap¬
plication/program. This is the same as if you were to
run it from your shell/desktop (maybe NeoDesk). Once
the program has been run, the Task Manager gives
you a number of options. You can put an application
to sleep, or terminate it. Note: most programs will
never need to be terminated; however, most accesso¬
ries never expect to be ended so they will need to be
terminated. With normal programs, when you exit,
they release any memory they were occupying and re¬
move themselves from the Task Manager’s menu.
Setting Your
Execution Flags
Because of the mag¬
nitude of programs avail¬
able for the ST/TT/Fal-
con, Geneva had to have
a way of changing the
way it handled many dif¬
ferent programs. This is
done with use of execution flags. See figure 2. These
are probably the most significant settings in Geneva.
These execution flags are stored in a file called
geneva.cnf. Geneva can keep many different execution
flags. Some may point to a specific file or a range of
files. Geneva controls this by use of a filename that it
compares when it launches an application. The use of
wildcards is allowed, so you could use “WP*.PRG” for
any program starting with “WP.” I don’t think there is
a limit on the number of execution flags that can be
set.
I will explain the major flags. The Multitask flag
tells Geneva if a program should multitask. This is
the standard method. However, some programs simply
just won’t share your computer with others. For these
types of programs, you tell Geneva to put all other ap¬
plications to sleep and run the current application by
itself. If you switch to another application that is mul¬
titasking, the current single tasking application is put
to sleep and all other multitasking applications wake
up. If you then switch back to that single tasking ap¬
plication, it will be awakened, and all other applica¬
tions will be put to sleep.
The limit memory option is also very important.
It limits a program from taking all the available
memory in your computer. For example, PageStream
will try to take every byte of memory when run. This
is fine in a single tasking environment. But in a mul¬
titasking environment, when you try to run a pro¬
gram after you have loaded PageStream , there won’t
be enough free memory. Knowing what the limit
memory setting should be is a hard call to make. It
may change from one program to another. Some pro¬
grams don’t try to take all memory, some do. This is
something you will have to experiment with.
The Clear allocated memory flag is also impor¬
tant. This is similar to the fast load option in TOS 1.4
and above. When this flag is set, Geneva will clear all
the memory a program will use. Most programs do
m
Tasks
A|«|®|
File Options
EBMfftC
GENEUfl
NEODESK
STORM
TOUCHUP
° TflSKMRN
° MRRP9_CP
0 XCONTROL
t
4-
fi
Figure 1
Execution flag s;ij:j|l:||;|=i
Name : PGS2 . PRG| prew
Desc: PageStream _ I NEXT j
IxJ Multitask |^find|
□ Li.mit window handles ~
lx] Limit memory to 2888_ Kb
Ixl Clear allocated memory
□ Uindows off left edge
Ixl Maximize window areas
[x] Redraw upon exiting
[x] Special object types *
ix] Rounded buttons
[x] Automatic keyboard eguius
IE3 Undraw auto keyboard equius
□ Keep menu bar/desktop
IxJ RES H.8 extended messages
Page 56
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
Info
ISamplejjjj
Font-
Point size:
not need this flag set. However, some
programs expect all memory to con¬
tain zeros, and when they don’t find
them they do funny things. This flag
is to keep that from happening.
The Automatic keyboard equiva¬
lents flag will allow Geneva to use the
keyboard to access exit items on dia¬
log boxes. This is similar to a utility
called form-do-it. A letter in each op¬
tion is underlined to show what key
will activate it. This is a nice feature
that will keep you from going from
your keyboard to your mouse every
few seconds. However, this may
cause problems with some programs and this flag will
allow you to disable it for those programs.
The last flag, AES 4.0 extended messages, tells
Geneva if an application should use the new AES
calls. Most applications just ignore any newer AES
calls; some do take advantage of these newer calls.
lUindoui preferences''','-!;1;:,:- vV-t-"; "j
lH
-Gadget bordei -
Uidth:l~+jil| 4|
Height:ft | 3 | *■ |
System
M3
EE3
tion. This will drop down the left
most menu. Simply use the arrow
keys to highlight the option you
would like. Then press [Enter] to
make your selection. Note: These
keys are not user definable.
Changing the GEM Windows
Geneva will allow you to
modify the way GEM windows ap¬
pear. This feature is accessed us¬
ing the windows . . . menu select in
the Task Manager. See figure 3.
The size of the title and info lines,
and the right vertical bar can be
changed. This will allow more working area. As little
as it may be, it can sometimes help.
Geneva also lets you change the font and size
used for text in GEM windows. You can use the stand¬
ard system font, or a monospaced GDOS font. For my
uses, it seems faster to use the system font.
Figure 3
Every Program Has Its Own Key
One very powerful feature of the Task Manager is
the ability to define a key combination to call an ap¬
plication/desktop accessory to the foreground. (Notice
at the bottom of the Execution flags dialog box, the
button marked Keys.) For example, you could define
the key combination [Alternate]+[Control]+W to bring
the Warp9 Control Panel to the front. The feature will
only work if the application/desktop accessory is al¬
ready loaded.
Spicing up Your Plain Looking Dialog Boxes
You don’t have to live in the past with your old,
dated-looking dialog boxes. Geneva replaces the bor¬
ing-looking box type buttons with neat, 3D type but¬
tons that appear to move into the screen when you se¬
lect them. This gives you the NEXT / ZEST type look¬
ing interface.
You also can define a different looking back¬
ground for dialog boxes. For color users, you can de¬
fine color buttons, borders, text, and fills.
Controlling Your Windows With Keys
Geneva will allow you to program keyboard
equivalents for most of the window commands. For ex¬
ample, you could program the [Alternate]+[Esc] key
combination to close the active window. This comes in
handy when you don’t want to take your hand away
from the keyboard. Geneva comes al¬
ready programmed with default key
combinations, but you can change
these to satisfy you own preferences.
To program or change the window
keys, use the menu selection labeled
“keyboard. . . .” under the Option
menu.
Walking the Drop Down Menus
Like with the window keyboard
equivalents, Geneva also allows you to
access the drop down menus in a
similar manner. You simply press the
[Alternate]+[Space Bar] key combina-
Conclusion
As I said in the first part of this review, I think
Geneva is a very well thought out program. When do¬
ing a review, I try to do it as objectively as possible,
pointing out any problems I find. The only dilemma
with reviewing a program like Geneva , is there are so
few problems, it’s tough to do a review
without seeming partial toward the
developer. In all honesty, I think
Geneva is one of the best programs to
come to the Atari market place in re¬
cent history. It truly breathes new life
into your computer.
Geneva
Gribnif Software
P.O. Box 779
Northampton, MA 01061
Voice (413) 247-5620
Fax (413) 247-5622
Figure 4
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 57
STalk the Market vs Stock Smart
s4 ut <x£ s4#udcpti& *7o&l&
by Tkrry L. Quinn
If you are an Atari owner and you are looking to
get more for your savings, you might want to take a
look at a couple of programs which make “investing”
much easier. Stock Smart by Mark Cawthon and
Stalk the Market by Tbm Bushaw are a couple of ex¬
pertly written programs that will let you establish
what are called “portfolios” and track how much the
contents are worth, without all of the confusion and
eyestrain of decoding the Wall Street Journal .
Both of these programs are useful tools for main¬
taining a historical record of stock investments and
keeping track of the value of those investments. Be¬
yond this, both of them will also put some analytical
tools at your fingertips to help you maximize your re¬
turn. They also make very pretty charts of the basic
price information together with the appropriate
analysis information. Both provide a means of directly
importing price information from GEnie, CompuServe
and other services to save you the nuisance of manu¬
ally entering the information from listings printed in
your local paper. In fact, this process is so easy, if you
have any investments at all, the convenience of ob¬
taining price information this way is well worth the
modest cost of these programs.
One weakness that both of these programs share
is that neither one provides you much, if any, clue as
to what to do with the information they provide you.
Stalk the Market is considerably better in this respect
than Stock Smart in that it provides a useful listing
of reference works if you wish to learn the principles
underlying the features of the program. Stock Smart ,
on the other hand, does not give you any idea where
to get information on the hows and whys of investing
and investment analysis. It is the opinion of this re¬
viewer that if you don’t know what you’re are doing, a
program like this will usually multiply your confusion
if you don’t do some additional study; so reading be¬
yond the documentation is recommended.
There are substantial differences between each of
these programs in terms of how they gather the basic
information on each stock. Slock Smart uses an in¬
cluded external terminal program with a powerful
macro capability to gather the basic information,
which is then converted by yet another program to a
format the basic program can use. There are several
places where this process can go awry. First, when
setting up the terminal program, it will not display
your logon password sequence after you type it (as a
security measure). If you make a minor typographical
error and it doesn’t run properly, this characteristic
makes it rather difficult to determine the problem.
Second, it uses a complicated naming system for cap¬
ture file, which, if you don’t study the documentation
carefully, will cause you to lose the data you just
downloaded. Finally, since the process is essentially
manual with a complicated series of commands, cap¬
tures and saves, the possibilities of
screwing something up are considerable.
Stalk the Market , on the other hand,
is simplicity itself in this respect. You en¬
ter a portfolio (a collection of stocks)
which you want it to follow, select the
service (GEnie, CompuServe, DJNS, etc.)
from a menu, add the local phone and
your password and turn it loose. No mac¬
ros, manual operations, or converting. In
fact, you don’t even need to own the stock
in question. One of the great strengths of
this program is the ability to create “hy¬
pothetical” portfolios so you can play
“what if’ before you actually spend any
money. This gives you the opportunity to
really learn what you are doing before
you make a *serious* investment.
Page 58
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
A demo of Stalk the Market is available on CN #695.
Versatility is another important
characteristic for any program of this
sort. Stock Smart is designed to handle
any Common Stock whether NYSE,
AMEX or whatever. It will accommodate
stock splits and will give you what the
program calls a total return on invest¬
ment. It only has a couple of flaws in
this department.
First of all, there is no intuitively
obvious manner in which to record Divi¬
dends. If you are primarily interested in
Capital Growth and the companies you
invest in don’t pay dividends, this will
not present a problem. However, a large
number of large companies do pay divi¬
dends and the fact that they do so will
have a positive effect on your total re¬
turn.
Second, this program is not designed to be able to
handle any security other than common stocks. This
omission is particularly painful when one reflects on
the popularity and easy availability of mutual funds.
These two disadvantages are enough to severely limit
the usefulness of this program for many individuals.
Stalk the Market , by contrast, is considerably
more versatile. Ib begin with, any securities product,
whether a stock, mutual fund, or whatever, for which
there is a standard abbreviation can be accounted for
in this program. It is supplied with files to allow you
to download prices from stock exchanges in the
United States and Canada via any of four online serv¬
ices. It also features accounting functions to handle
several types of transactions including dividends
(whether reinvested or cashed out), capital gains
(both short and long term), stock splits, and others. It
will keep track of your gains and losses for each indi¬
vidual investment as well as for the portfolio as a
whole. One of the features of this program, “Smart
Ledgers,” provides some checks and balances to en¬
sure that the information retained by this program is
accurate by calculating certain items of data from
other information that you had previously provided.
Since both of these programs are marketed as in¬
vestment analysis tools, it seems only fair to evaluate
them in this respect as well. Ideally, all programs of
this type should provide you with a variety of statis¬
tics to assist you in the decision as to whether you
should buy or sell a particular security.
Stock Smart provides two basic statistical tests:
Moving Average Current Values (MACV) and Stochas¬
tics. Tb their credit, they describe in detail how each
of these is calculated and how you should recognize
the indicated buy and sell points. These features work
well, in that the calculations are accurate, and buy
and sell points show up clearly. The only drawback is
that you don’t have a clue as to what the significance
of these tests is and why you should consider buying
and selling according to the results of the indicated
calculations.
Stalk the Market has a richer set of calculations
than does Stock Smart and shares at least one of the
statistical tests (MACV) with its competitor. Unlike
Stock Smart , however, it provides you with the basis
on which certain tests were included, how to evaluate
them, and reference works if you wish to understand
the investment management theories that use these
tests. Besides, you have other buy and sell indicators
like Valid TVend Lines, and Trailing Loss Levels. It
will also do cyclic analyses like Fourier Analysis, and
Residual Analysis, as well as a full blown historical
simulation. While it does not provide formulas (some
like Fourier Analysis are too complex), it does provide
a useful background for all of them.
One might easily conclude that this author con¬
siders Stock Smart to be distinctly inferior to its com¬
petitor, Stalk the Market . While true, it is obvious
that this is not an isolated opinion if one carefully ex¬
amines the documentation supplied with Stock Smart.
Mark Cawthon, the creator of Stock Smart strongly
recommends acquiring a copy of Stalk the Market in
addition to his own program and provides an excellent
facility for importing data from this program into his
own. The only problem here is that once you have
used both, you probably will want to stick to Stalk the
Market exclusively.
Both of these programs were provided courtesy of
Horizon Computers at 695 South Colorado Boul¬
evard #10 in Denver, Colorado.
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 59
Using TWo Computers and One Monitor
Computers
By Alvin Riesbeck
Photograph by Jennifer Riesbeck
When the Falcon first arrived on the scene, I, like
the other Atari faithful, went to see the Falcon at my
Atari dealer. What new special hardware features
would be built into the Falcon and could the Falcon
produce a desire for me to buy it? I asked Don Barr of
Computer Sellers West the following questions about
the Falcon. Would it support VGA graphics (640x480
with 256 colors)?
Don replied, ‘Wes.” An additional hardware pack¬
age, Screenblaster by Overscan, would support even
higher graphics resolutions: 1152x832 with 16 colors
or 800x600 with 256 colors or 1280x960 in 2-color in¬
terlace mode. The interlace mode has a lot of screen
flicker and I do not believe it is useable. Screenblaster
is also capable of various lower resolution VGA graph¬
ics. To obtain the VGA graphic modes with the Falcon,
you must use a VGA monitor.
More questions. Can the Falcon use the same WAV
sound files the Microsoft windows system uses? Do
Windows BMP, GIF and PCX bit map pictures work?
Could my Atari Megafile 44 megabyte removeable be
used with the Falcon?
Don replied, “Yes!” to all these questions. I told
Don I would be back with some of my software and bit
map pictures, etc.
Falcon Abilities
I returned to Computer Sellers West with the fol¬
lowing software in tow. Bit Map picture files, which
included Windows (BMP), PC Paintbrush (PCX) and
GIF. I also brought Windows WAV sound files and
Michton’s 3D-Calc spreadsheet program that is now
being sold by Oregon Research. The Falcon demo ma¬
chine had several application programs loaded, includ¬
ing LDW spreadsheet, Pagestream desktop publishing,
Atari Works, and True Paint by Oregon Research. The
demo machine also had the Screenblaster hardware
installed.
I first tried the WAV files and they worked using
the Atari system audio manager software. Next came
the test of the software package 3D-Calc, and it
worked. I then loaded the BMP, PCX and GIF picture
files using the software program True Paint. The dis¬
plays were at 800x600 w 256 colors; in fnct, the bit
map pictures looked the same when displayed from
the Falcon or from my IBM. Thinking about the Fal¬
con, I realized it would cost me almost the same
amount of money to upgrade my old system to the ca¬
pabilities of the Falcon as it cost to just buy the Fal¬
con. The Falcon came with bundled software, had
more computing power, built in stereo sound, 1.4
megabyte floppy disk drive, the latest GEM operating
system and it could display VGA graphics. Because of
my work environment, I already owned an IBM sys¬
tem with a super (1024x768 dot .28) VGA monitor. I
wanted to buy the Falcon, but I did not want to buy
another VGA monitor for about $400.
The Need to Use Only One VGA Monitor
I turned to members of my computer club for
some help. Wayne Booth suggested I purchase an A/B
switch box and use my IBM monitor for both systems.
Wayne, conveniently, had an extra 15-pin VGA A/B
switch box for sale and I bought it. The plan to buy a
Falcon was now in full swing because I had a way to
use my IBM monitor for both computer systems.
I ordered a 4 megabyte Falcon with an 85 mega¬
byte hard drive from Computer Sellers West. Don
would install a SCSI cable allowing my 44 megabyte
removable to work on the Falcon and I would buy two
cables to connect to the A/B box from the two comput¬
ers. Everything seemed just fine until I discovered the
VGA cables at the discount computer stores were
mainly made for extension purposes and were con¬
structed with one male and one female connector.
What I needed was a female connector on both ends
of the cable because the A/B switch had male connec¬
tors.
I went back to Don Barr and explained the prob¬
lem. He said it’s no problem; just buy two female con¬
nectors remove the male connector from the cable
and attach the female connector. I then confessed to
Don that I do not solder. Don said he would take care
of the problem. About a week later Don called me and
said the my Falcon was at his store waiting for me to
pick it up and the cables were ready. All I had to do
was bring the Megafile 44 to the shop and he would
install the SCSI cable onto the Megafile drive. Yes! I
did get the hardware ScreenBlaster with my Falcon.
Will It Work?
When I got the Falcon home, the work of install¬
ing the new setup did not take very long. I discon¬
nected the VGA monitor from the IBM. I then con-
Page 60
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
nected the cable from the Atari computer to the ‘A’
connector of the 15-pin VGA switch box. The next step
was to connect the second cable from the IBM compu¬
ter to the ‘B’ connector of the switch box. I then con¬
nected the monitor to the input/output connector of
the switch box. When I set the A/B switch to the ‘A
position, the monitor will display from the Atari com¬
puter; and the monitor will display from the IBM
computer when I put the switch box into the *B’ posi¬
tion. After connecting all the rest of the cables on
both the IBM and the Atari computers, I was now
ready to test my new system. The system worked
flawlessly.
The photo included with this article displays my
two-computer, one monitor setup. In the upper left
corner is the 44 megabyte removable hard drive. To
the right of the hard drive is an A/B switch box for
the printer. (Yes! one printer for two computers.) The
VGA monitor is on top of the IBM keyboard that is
housed in a keyboard case and the IBM mouse is to
the right of the monitor. In the lower left corner is the
Atari Falcon with the Atari mouse to its right. In the
shelf under the IBM keyboard is the A/B switch that
controls the monitor. Next to that switch is a US
Robotics modem. Finally, to the right of my computer
desk is the Mid tower IBM clone box.
Necessary Hardware
Tb share a monitor between an Atari Falcon and
an IBM compatible, you will need the following hard¬
ware:
* An IBM computer system with a VGA card.
* An Atari Falcon computer with a VGA adapter.
* One VGA monitor.
* One 15-pin VGA A/B switch box.
* Two VGA cables with female 15-pin connectors at
both ends of the cable.
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 61
SQUISH II
Reviewed by Paul Lefebvre
Squish II is the update to the popular DC Squish
program that was included in the old DC Utilities
package. Squish II promises faster compression time
and smaller executables. Does it deliver? Read on.
Setting It Up
Squish II is very easy to set up, involving only a
quick copy of UNSQUISH.PRG to your auto folder.
Squish II delivers smaller executables, in part, by re¬
quiring the decompresser to be loaded as an AUTO
program. This allowes the uncompression loader that
was previously tacked on to each squished program to
be removed. The net result is that a small amount of
space is saved for each file, but a large amount is
saved over an entire drive. UNSQUISH.PRG only re¬
quires about 2K. Since squished programs will not
run without UNSQUISH.PRG loaded, distributing
squished files is impossible (and not allowed, anyway).
Trace Technologies recommends that you reorder the
AUTO (older so that UNSQUISH.PRG runs near the
beginning since you can only squish auto folder pro¬
grams that run after UNSQUISH.PRG.
Using Squish II
The SQUISHII.APP program (as before, it can
work as an accessory by changing the extender to
.ACC) has an entirely new interface and can now mul¬
titask. It is even possible to squish files in the back¬
ground. Unlike the original DC Squish, Squish II has
ten different levels of compression, called CF (com¬
pression factor) 0-9. CFO is about the same compres¬
sion that Squish vl would give you, but selecting a
higher CF value will lead to a smaller executable. The
only drawback is that it takes longer to compress the
executable with a more efficient CF. Trace Technolo¬
gies recommends using CF6 for most of your files
(and I agree) as it is the best compromise between
compression time and size of the executable. Decom¬
pression time is always constant, whether you use
CFO or CF9, so if you have time to kill while Squish II
compresses your executables, feel free to use CF9.
Squish II is able to convert most other compres¬
sion methods to its own (more efficient) method. This
is a useful feature that eliminates having to decom¬
press anything you might already have compressed.
One of the most useful features of Squish II is its
ability to perform batch squishes. Squish II can
[ Squish II V2.12
| §3=1^3 ccsgijBi]
3203
I COMPRESSION FACTOR |
| |0 1S345g7S3|
■ Sub-Uirect.ory 1
■ Keep TIMEDHTeI
:
1 1 Set FfiST bit
1 Skip Squished I
1 Keep Backup 1 1
ilclear FAST bit
| Squished Only |
Specify
Dost. 1 1
1 1 Clear Heap
1 No CF Update I
Show Alerts 1 1
•
II Excl./fiicl.
| Save Config. |
1 _ Exit II
_ 1 —
Squish II by Keith Gerdes
Copyright © 1989-1993 Trace Technologies
ABOUT
search an entire drive or directory and squish every
executable in it without any interaction from the user.
This is where the background operation comes in
most handy because it can take a while to squish an
entire drive.
As an example of the type of compression you can
expect, these are the results from squishing all the
executables on my system:
Drive
Before
After
Savings
Squish II
Squish II
C:
2.4MB
2.9MB
0.5MB
D:
10.2MB
11.2MB
1.0MB
E:
16.4MB
18.5MB
2.1MB
F:
3.5MB
4.3MB
0.8MB
Tbtal Savings:
4.4MB
I freed 4.4 megabytes of space on my hard drive
by squishing every executable. Considering that I had
already been using DC Squish vl on almost every file,
I find it to be an impressive reduction. According to
Data Diet Tbols, which is included free to examine
disk usage, I saved over 10 megabytes of disk space by
using Squish II (versus not using any compression).
Users of DC Squish vl will remember the annoy¬
ing little “DCSquish-FILENAME” that appeared on
the menu line when a program was executed. Thank¬
fully, it has been removed from Squish II. The only
time you will notice if something has been squished
with Squish II is if you forget to boot with UN¬
SQUISH.PRG in the AUTO folder (you will get a “File
not found” message when trying to execute Squished
executables). I no longer notice it is installed (except
when I check my free disk space and see the appreci¬
ated savings).
Page 62
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
Manual
The 42-page owner’s manual is a no-frills affair;
graphics are inserted where appropriate and it reads
well. Squish II is so easy to use, you may be tempted
to not read the manual. I have always maintained
that to make maximum use of a product, you need to
read the owners’s manual— whether it is a toaster or
a computer program. There are plently of little tidbits
in the manual, so please do read it.
Summing It All Up— Positives
☆ extremely easy to use
☆ multitasking-friendly
☆ great support
Summing It All Up— Negatives
★ squished files cannot be distributed
This program is strongly recommended. Do not
steal it. Do not borrow it. Purchase it. You will not re¬
gret it.
[Squish II, Trace Technologies, PO Box 711403,
Houston, TX 77271-1403. Phone: (713) 771-8332,
Weekdays 1PM-5PM CST).
List: $39.95.]
Available now . . .
ft* Papa's
Grafik Guide
to
HlarlWorfcs™
Word Processor
The definitive sourcebook for
maximizing the potential of your
AtariWorks Word Processor.
$18.95
including shipping
from
Papa’s Grafik Press
1228 N. School St.
Honolulu, HI 96817
This ad was created entirely in AtariWorks
rT*be IVIatli Machine
■■■■■hi
From senior high to Fermilab - if you do any engineering
or scientific calculations, then you need this program.
* Numerical integration, differentiation * Systems of linear, non-linear
and differential equations * Vector and matrix operations * Multi¬
dimensional function optimization * Mean, standard deviation * Func¬
tion and data plots * Linear regression, correlation * Polynomial least
squares * Multi -parameter point and histogram fits * Unit conversion
* Roots of square, cubic, quartic equations
Version 2.3 plots in color, runs in the new Falcon
resolutions (also in TT High and Medium). $63.
Desk File List Ha
_ 1532 STARS
Mercators P=Ecl D=Eaui Center [61: «=0°0
* 9000+- brightest stars * 300 deep sky objects * Planets, comets, Sun
and Moon * Various projections, reference frames and map ranges *
Choice of observer’s location and time * Mapping, browsing, database
manipulation * Object search, selection and identification * Hertzs-
prung-Russel diagram * Planet and comet path plotting
Version 1.3 uses color for maps, works in Falcon
resolutions (also in TT High and Medium). $43.
IVdCln Cal Big Sky
El Cal’s little brother: a scientific An extra data base with 40,000+
calculator accessory, with the stars and 4,000 deep sky objects,
same expression parser and the For Star Base 1.1 or higher,
most powerful function set on the Hard drive recommended. $22.
market (95 total). $15.
All programs run on any Atari ST, Mega, ST^, TT or Falcon, color or
monochrome (Gemulator/VGA OK, too). All need 1 MByte of RAM.
Prices as shown include shipping. When ordering two products, deduct $6,
and $4 for each next. Outside continental US please add $5.
Updates: first one free, then $5 each. Upgrades to El Cal 2.3 from l.xx: $20
Send a check ($US on a US bank) or money order to
Debonair Software, P.O.B. 521166, SLC, UT 84152-1 166
April 1994
Current Notes
Page 63
CLASSIFIED ADS
ST GAME SOFTWARE: Over 40 titles, $10 each. All have original boxes and
manuals. Call Marty, 615-824-4853 any time.
Atari Mega ST4 with 45 mb internal hard drive, Spectre GCR 3.0- w/128k
ROMS, mono monitors (2), Swedish TOS 1.4, Star NX21400 printer; original
software including Word Perfect, Calamus, Fleet Street Publisher, Phasar, more.
Best Offer. Call Jan, (301) 933-0011.
CN Classified Ads. Send your classified ad into CN Classified, 122 N Johnson Rd,
Stelring, VA 20164. Classified ads are free to CN subscribers (non-commercial
use) and 3 cents per character (minimum charge of $3) otherwise.
Disk Subscription
$60/year or $115/(2 years)
With every issue, you will receive a CN public domain Disk
of the Month (DOM), filled with the finest in PD software, de¬
livered right to your door. For only $60/year, $33 over the stand¬
ard CN subscription rate, you receive a double -sided disk
packed with games, utilities, demos, and application programs
for your Atari. See page 2 for a listing of the titles available on
this month’s DOM.
Note: if you are a current subscriber, you can convert to
the disk subscription for only $3.30/month over the balance of
your current subscription. CN DOMs will be available in the
library for $5 each (plus $1 S&H).
INTRODUCTORY SPECIAL: Note: anyone beginning
or switching over to a disk subscription with the March or April
issue will receive the February DOM FREE! With that initial
DOM, you will be able to easily uncompress any of the files in
the CN library. Offer expires May 1, 1994.
Canadian Subscribers: A disk subscription is available
for only $35 over your regular subscription rate of $36/year. For
Canadian and other foreign subscribers, the per disk cost is only
$3.50 per month.
EXPAND YOUR CAPABILITY AND PRODUCTIVITY
WITH...
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Name Badges (self-sticking)
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USER GROUPS* Product and
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as DOOR PRIZES for your shows. /
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YES!!! Please start/renew my subscription to Current Notes. I would like the (check the appropriate box)
DISK SUBSCRIPTION ($60/yr [ ]) ($115/2 yrs [ ]); REGULAR SUBSCRIPTION ($27/yr [ ]) ($48/2 yrs [ ]).
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Page 64
Current Notes
Vol. 14, No. 3
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optional modules available that expand
your creativity while increasing
productivity, without leaving the
program itself. Calamus SL's
modularity is designed with
the future in mind,
Outline Art
3.0 offers
Using MT Scan you can directly scan
and save transparencies and reflective art
in the following formats: ESM, TIF and
TGA. Images can be scanned in l-bit
monochrome, 8-bit grayscale and 24-bit
color modes and resolutions from 75dpi
to 600dpi on the Scanmaker II and up to
1850dpi on the Scanmaker 1850 slide
And last but not least, there is the classic
Calamus 1.09N, our entry level page
layout program with over 300 powerful
functions.
DMC presents Cybercube's CyReL
Sunrise M16-1280, the first integrated
VME bus card for the Atari TT/STe that
combines everything from high
resolution monochrome displays to
stunning 24 -bit color graphics, it comes
complete with 2Mbyte of fast 32-bit
VRAM, flexible expansion buses and
VDI drivers. The Sunrise is equipped
with an expansion slot for the VidiMix 8
module which gives you the ability to
capture, edit, transform and integrate live
NTSC/PAL video data for multimedia.
import
driver
2800 John Street, Unit 10, Markham, Ontario, Canada, L3R 0E2 Tel: (905) 479-1880 Fax: (905) 479-1882
GEnie: ISD or POTECHIN CompuServe: 76004,2246 Delphi: ISDMARKETING
For further information , please call your local Atari
dealer or contact us directly. Dealer inquiries invited.
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